Grace-Empowered Humility

We are continuing a series on the book of Philippians, a letter that Paul the apostle wrote to a church in a place called Philippi two thousand years ago. It is a wonderful expression of the outworkings of the good news of Jesus that leads to joy. And one of the key themes in this book is on joy. So the sermon series is entitled capturing joy. This idea of how we as Christians can have it in our lives, how we as human beings can have it as part of our very natures.

But this morning, we're going to look at one of the other key themes in the book, which is on the aspect of humility. Now this is perhaps one of the, I think, the most neglected parts within the Christian church. The thing that I think we could all strive for more, if you look at all the failures of the church in the past, however many years, if you look at moral failures with pastors, if you look at disunity in churches causing church splits, if you look at the accusations of hypocrisy from non-Christians about Christians, really, it all boils down to this: we are not humble enough. We are not humble enough. If you think you are humble, if you think that you've understood what it means to submit yourself to others, think again.

Humility, I think, is the one thing. If there is one thing that we as Christians in the West need to understand and grow in, it is this idea of humility. So we're going to read, I think, Paul's greatest teaching, greatest summary of how we can be humble as Christians from Philippians 2. I'll get us to turn to that this morning. I'm going to read from Philippians 2:1-18.

Paul continues in his letter saying, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any comfort from His love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy for one another, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. But in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Having this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.

Yes. Even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name. So 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.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. Holding fast to the word of life so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labour in vain.

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. So far, our reading. We're going to look at the topic of humility because that is really the one key command or one key theme that comes out of this, even though there are many sort of sub-themes, subplots that tie into it. And there are three sort of movements in this passage from verse 1 through to 18 that we'll look at.

Firstly, the commands that Paul gives the church on how to live, what we must do as Christians. Then he motivates us, or how or why we can do that. And then lastly, he says in light of how you can do this, how you can be motivated to do this, do it. Do it. And he gives us another final sort of command on how to do that.

So three movements or three parts. The first is the command. The attitudes that are commanded by Paul. Remember in Paul's opening in chapter one, Paul explodes with joy. He is so thankful, so happy for the Philippian Christians.

He says, he starts this, "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, making my prayers with joy." Even as Paul is sitting in prison, he sees the good news message of Jesus Christ has started transforming, absolutely overhauling the lives of these Christians. Even as he's sitting in Rome, so far from all of these churches that he started, even as he sits in Rome under imperial guard, he knows that he's been able to share the gospel with some of these guards, that these guards are talking with the household of Caesar himself about the good news message. And he's hearing about the proclamation of Jesus reverberating in the streets of Rome itself as Christians there are encouraged by Paul who is there in the city with them. They are starting to share the gospel, and he is just so full of joy at this amazing news.

He, even as he sits in prison, is brimming with joy and says, who cares if some people are even sharing this gospel news with bad motives? With some sort of motive to make my life harder here in prison, I don't care so long as the gospel of Jesus is being proclaimed. And then Paul continues with this theme of joy as he moves to this next section that we've delineated as the second chapter, chapter two. He says, so verse one, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any comfort from His love, if you have any participation in the Holy Spirit, and if you have any affection and sympathy as a result of this newfound faith. He says verse two, complete my joy.

The NIV says, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. And he, that's one part. He talks about being humble, and then he talks about being helpful. The Philippians, because of the many good things in their life, have been a source of joy to Paul. But Paul says that joy is not yet complete.

It's not yet perfected. There is still something that can be done. What is that? Well, verses 2 and 4 explain and highlight three virtues that Paul desires for the Philippian Christians. Three virtues.

They are unity in verse 2, humility in verse 3, and then helpfulness in verse 4. Now on the issue of unity, Paul writes verse 2, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord with one another. Notice that this is a unity or a oneness very much of a spiritual nature. It's not just you guys make sure that you meet physically together as a church regularly enough. This is being united together.

Being close in one faith. One expression of that. It is a oneness in disposition. A oneness in love. A oneness in purpose.

Paul's concern here is that Christians need to be Christians together. There needs to be unity in the church. It needs to be a unity at its deepest levels. Not just simply saying, "Hey, look, we're Reformed people. We belong to a denomination."

It it doesn't mean that we are one because we decide 9 AM on a Sunday morning we come together. It is unity at a spiritual level, and it grieves God as it is grieving Paul where there is disunity. It means that we can't be Christians who simply are Christians, who don't belong to anyone, and we know plenty of them who sit at home on Sunday mornings because they believe they don't fit in anywhere. They believe that no church is good enough for them.

We can't say that God is happy with that. It would not have made Paul's joy complete seeing the Philippian Christians like that. That is why Paul is saying, make it complete by being unified. It also means that we have to work harder than as a church here to find and pursue unity with one another. Christians need to talk with other Christians if there are aspects of disunity.

Jesus Himself said, if you know that your brother has something against you, you go and sort it out with them. Don't wait. Don't think that it's up to them. They're the ones that are aggrieved. You go and sort it out with them.

It is weakness. It is the opposite of courage that makes us ignore or not deal with things that fracture a church. It is weakness, not courage, for us not to deal with those things. Go and speak to a brother. Go and speak to that sister.

For us as leaders in the church, elders, it means that we have to prioritise unity above most other things in our church. Secondly, and so that's what Paul says. Be unified. One mind, one accord with one another. Secondly, Paul seeks humility for the Philippians.

Paul says in verse three, do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit. That conceit can be translated as empty conceit, like empty pride. If everyone is constantly thinking about themselves, how can unity ever be established? If everyone's thinking about themselves, how can anyone have unity? In other words, unity cannot exist without humility.

It is an empty thing to say that we are unified if we are not humble. Christians, therefore, cannot be consumed by selfish ambition, as Paul calls it. What is good for me trumping what is good for my brother or my sister. Paul then balances this negative command, do nothing out of selfish ambition. He balances that with the positive command, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.

The interesting thing is the Greek word here used for humility is a word that people in that time used in a derogatory way. People used to use that word for humility to talk about cowardice, being a coward. Then Paul, however, hijacks that word and says, when grace enters the life of a Christian, when grace enters our life, humility comes not out of fear now, out of cowardliness. Humility or submission comes out of love. It comes out of joy, out of thankfulness.

And so what does it mean to count others more significant than ourselves? Does it mean Christianity promotes horrible self-esteem? That we all distinguish such terrible people. No. It means we need to be very clear in our minds about the reality of who we are, and also the reality of who we serve and who we love.

Firstly, the reality of who we are. We have to recognise that in our worst moments, we are indeed selfish. That we think in two extremes. We can either be selfish in thinking that we are worthless. I mean, that is a very self-centred thinking, actually.

And that is sinful according to the Bible because God has created us as the greatest beings. We are the masterpieces of this universe in His eyes. He has created us with incredible value. So much so that He says that we are the image bearers of Him. It means that human life is worth far more than oil.

Far more than diamonds. Far more than any human equivalent of worth. Fame or status or so called freedom. And you can ground that in every aspect of Christian ethics when it comes to things like abortion. That is a human life.

How much more precious is that than a bit of hardship to bring that baby through, to look after a baby that may have even been, at least in our understanding, an accident. It permeates every Christian ethic, this idea of the intrinsic value of humanity. And so we would be wrong to think that we are worthless in and of ourselves. We have been created in the image of God, and yet we have to be careful not to go to the other extreme by remembering that we are only image bearers of God. We are not God.

When we make selfish decisions on the other side, we fall into the extreme where we think we know best. And so we put ourselves in the place of God. We judge things to be okay or not okay by our standards, and we try to bend God's will to suit our own. These are the two polar opposite extremes of selfishness. And so what does it mean when Paul says that we are to consider others more significant than ourselves?

Well, it is to assume. It is to assume, first and foremost, that the other Christian, and Paul is talking here with Christians, about Christians, it is to assume that the other Christian has good motives when they communicate, when they say something, when they have a particular view. That's the starting point. In order to be humble and that humility leading to unity, it is to assume the best from your fellow believer. Who can say they do that?

How do we do that? Well, because we understand that the spirit of the living God is now within this person. God Himself, God Himself is dwelling within the fellow believer. Now our human side wants to assume the worst in people. We already start assuming that this person is out to get us.

He's out to destroy something precious in me or in our church, but we have to assume the best in our Christian believer. That can be really tricky when we've been disappointed in the past. And guys, I can guarantee you, we will disappoint one another. But here's a helpful pattern to remember. Firstly, to remember who we are.

We are image bearers, magnificently made to glorify God. Yet we are also sinners, but we are forgiven sinners. We are people who can get things wrong, and therefore never should assume that we know what is best in every situation all the time. But we are also forgiven, now that we have Christ in us. And Christ, as Paul has said in Philippians 1:6, has started a good work in us, and He is going to finish that good work in us.

And so I should be careful to listen closely to what my fellow believer is trying to tell me. Paul Himself lived out this attitude. If you ever wanted an example of how this can be done. In 1 Corinthians 15:9, Paul calls himself the least of the apostles. In Ephesians 3:8, he calls himself the very least of all the saints in God's church.

The very least, Paul. In 1 Timothy 1:15, he says of himself, I am the chief of sinners. This is Paul. One of the most brilliant minds of his generation. One of the most gifted communicators of his time.

One of the most godly church leaders that has ever existed, and he sees himself as the lowest. Why? Well, in order that he could be a servant to all, and that is how he sees it. His job was not to be a leader, to be promoted, to be seen in a certain way. His duty was to serve people with the word of God.

But the way he did that was to see himself firstly as the needy sinner who needed God's grace first. And that led him to a hugely, immensely deep humility. Then thirdly, Paul says Christians need to be helpful. Christians need to be helpful. Have you ever thought of this, that Christians should be active?

And this activeness, this activity is not being busy with our own stuff. This is the kicker. Christians need to be busy with serving others. If you regard your brother or your sister more highly than yourself, then you are going to look out for what's best for them. And Paul doesn't, if you read that construction there, Paul doesn't downplay the need to look after ourselves.

He assumes that we will look after ourselves. It's like the same ethic that Jesus said, love your neighbour as you love yourself. Jesus knows that we will love ourselves. But love your neighbour to the same degree. Love your neighbour to the same degree.

This means we should think how we can serve and bless one another better. We need to think more actively, more purposefully. Where is there a need in this church with my brothers, with my sisters that I can help with? Where can I help? Who can I bless?

Whether that's in this church, but I think we start, we must start in this church, or whether that is Christians around us. But can you see how these three commands fit together? They actually are almost telescopic. They the one leads out from the other and they sort of intensify. It's only through prioritising unity, saying that this is really important for us.

Unity is really important for us. Prioritising unity that we will live humbly with each other, and through that humility, we will seek to serve and bless one another. And all of this, in turn, blesses God. God is happy. Paul says His joy will be perfected if Christians are able to do this.

Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian and pastor in the eighteenth century, no, eighteenth century, he writes this: the best protection one can have from the devil and his schemes is a humble heart. Doesn't matter if you try and cleanse your house with all sorts of cultic images or anything like that. Doesn't matter how much you try and avoid darkness in your life. If your heart is not humble, you are open to all the schemes of Satan. That is how Satan causes disunity in the church.

That's how he breaks down pastors. Every single time a pastor falls, it's because of pride. The best protection one can have from the devil and his schemes is a humble heart. But how can we do this consistently? When are we, when are we so prone to disunity?

How can we serve others when we are so prone to laziness? How can we do any of this when our natures don't want that? Well, Paul says in the next section, consider this. Set your mind on this. Think of Jesus and what He's done for you.

In verses 5 to 11, Paul explains several massive truths about Jesus. It is one of the, the just the most amazing passages in Scripture. Firstly, Paul says that He was God. He was God. Paul says, Jesus was in the form of God, our ESV translation puts it.

Now there have been hundreds, I can guarantee you hundreds of pages written on this verse, trying to argue and map out what that actually means. The form of God statement comes from the Greek word, where we get the word morph from. And I'm happy to direct anyone here to those hundreds of pages if they want to understand and read all the arguments about it. There are non-Christians that will try and say the form of God Paul uses here is to say that Paul didn't understand Jesus to be God, to be divine. He was in the form of God.

In other words, like a representative image bearer of God. Really meaning in flowery ways, saying that Jesus is a man like the rest of us. Now that is really irrational if you read the passage because why would Paul waste words in trying to pretty much say Jesus was a man by saying Jesus was a form of God, a form bearer of God. But apart from that irrationality, using a really flowery way of simply saying Jesus was a human like you and me, the word morphe actually alludes to, not so much the external nature, but the intrinsic, essential, abiding nature. That is what morphe, if you study the root word, actually refers to.

It is the essence of a being. An essence of a person or thing. And so what Paul is saying here is that Jesus has always been and continues to be God by nature. He is the physical expression of the deity. He is the character of God expressed in its divine attributes.

But here is the magnificent turn of events, which makes this bit of poetry, and that's what it is. Our ESV doesn't translation doesn't put it as like the NIV does, which is like almost a quotation. It's a beautifully formatted script, like a hymn. And Paul is trying to say here that the power of humility doesn't come from just understanding that Jesus is God. This is the turn.

This is the, this is the surprise. This God did not think His godliness, His godness was something to cling to. But He emptied Himself. Humbled Himself by taking on humanity. He emptied Himself of glory, Paul says.

Now Jesus, in other words, having seen what sin was going to do to creation, having seen what would happen to humanity based upon its rebellion, Jesus knew what needed to be done. Jesus could have stayed. He would have had every right to have stayed within the triune Godhead of the Father, the Son, the Spirit. Having spent eternity in the past with God in that transcendent divine relationship. Yet Paul writes, this is the kicker.

He emptied Himself. And again, this word, there's another hundred pages that you could read on this. What does it mean for Jesus to have emptied? Does it mean He emptied Himself of divinity? Did He become less than God?

No. It refers to this act of submission. Jesus doesn't hold onto His perfectly justifiable position in heaven, but He submits Himself becoming human. Now the Bible talks about this in all various ways. Here are a few of them.

Jesus submits Himself, firstly, to be under the law. This moral law giver, the God who is all justice, all kindness, all humility, which we read in Micah 6 this morning, He comes and lives a life under the same authority of this law. The Bible says, however, this Jesus lived out that law perfectly. The law giver becomes subservient to the law. However, it's not just that.

Jesus in becoming man also empties Himself of the honour and the respect that He could have had as God. John 1 says that He enters the world and the world does not recognise Him. Though the whole world has been created by Him and for Him, this world does not respect Him, does not honour Him as the Creator. He is not received in the honour that is due to Him. Jesus also emptied Himself by losing all the riches that was His.

As Creator, He owns everything. He owns absolutely everything and yet, as human, Jesus is born in a borrowed manger. Staying at a rented inn. He, in His ministry, never sleeps in His own house. He doesn't own His own house.

He is invited by other people to stay with them. Jesus, in the night before He goes to the cross where He institutes the Lord's Supper, has to rent and hire a room. Ultimately, Jesus is buried in another man's grave. His whole life, Jesus borrowed. The Creator who owns everything emptied Himself.

And ultimately, Jesus empties Himself for us of His glory. And as shocking as all of those things are to us, Paul says in verse 8, Jesus humbles Himself taking on the form of man, not just simply to be a man, but to die a man's death. And then he says, even death on a cross. It's not some accident. It's not a disease.

Jesus dies on the most humiliating device that has been created. And why does He do this? Because He knew what our fate was. He saw that we had rebelled against God. That we had taken on ourselves the role of God and chosen our own way.

We chose to live as though God and His will is not relevant for us. That is what we did. We told ourselves that it's not modern enough. This applies to people of a bygone era and we know better. Or the things that sound good to us, the things of love and peace and unity, that applies to other people more than applies to me.

Other people need to grow in love, I don't. And from this, His throne in heaven, from His throne in heaven, Jesus saw that we are hell bent on hell. And knew that someone needed to pay for that sin and was on that horrible cross that Jesus paid for us. The ultimate representative of humanity. The only way it could have happened.

The only way that it could have been satisfied. He had to be man in order to die for man. And He had to be God to live out the law of God perfectly. And in all of that, Paul says, through all of that, He has shown Himself to be the true King. Through all of that.

Because only a king would do whatever it takes to rescue the kingdom. And so He humbled Himself to the point of physical and spiritual death in order to serve and to offer His life as a sacrifice for your sin and mine. And it doesn't end there because this great poem, this great hymn finishes with verses 9 to 11. This act of service was deemed so good. It was so honourable.

It was so magnificent that God the Father, the one who will judge all things, deemed Jesus worthy of the greatest honour, the greatest reward in the universe. He is the King of the universe, crowned and enthroned. From that throne, Paul says, every knee will bow. In front of that throne, every tongue will confess that He is Master. He is Lord.

One day, every person in your life will confess that Jesus is who He said He is. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. For us, hopefully in this church, for all of us, it will be with praise and applause and loud cheering full of joy that we say this. But notice here, Paul says that even those things under the earth. The things in heaven, the angels, the things on the earth, saved humanity, the things under the earth, those condemned to hell, those condemned to things lower than this place.

In grumbling, under painful obligation, will confess under compulsion that, yes, He was, He is, Lord. As a friend, I have to say this morning to you, make sure, make sure that that is not you on the day. Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your heart? Will you make Him the Lord of your heart before He will be the Lord of your eternal fate? So the question is, why does Paul command humility for the Philippians and give this magnificent expression, this wonderful expression of theology?

Well, because lasting humility in our lives can only come from truly understanding what Jesus has done for us. In his commentary on the life of John the Baptist, one of the most humble people, I think, that lived. The humble preparer for the way of the Lord, John the Baptist. F.B. Meyer writes, the only hope of a decreasing self is an increasing Christ. John the Baptist said, He must become greater and I must become less at the start of Jesus' ministry.

The only hope of decreasing in self is an increasing in Christ. That is why we need the magnificent understanding Philippians 2 of the glory of this Christ, of what He has done for us, of the extent of His salvation, of the depths of His humility for us to really understand, for us to be moved to true humility ourselves. And this is then how Paul finishes in the final verses, verses 12 to 18. He says, now that you understand what Jesus has done for you, who He is, this is how you are to live. Live as shining stars, shining lights in the darkness.

We are to live our lives as Christians in humble consideration. Paul says, with fear and trembling, working out, living out our salvation. Paul is saying, you have been saved. This is yours. This is yours.

Now live as a saved person. Hold fast to the word of life. This is not a word of death. This is the word of life that imparts joy and peace and goodness. And hold fast to it.

Keep coming back to it. Don't think that you'll figure it out on your own. Do all that is necessary in your life to keep hearing and learning about God, about God's will for us, and then apply it to your lives. Don't just be hearers of God's word, be doers of it. So that, he says, verse 16, on the day of Christ, that moment where every tongue confesses, every knee bows, on that day, for the Christians, there will be so much joy looking back at everyone standing there and saying, you've been faithful.

You have done it well. Well done. We've made it. We've been faithful to the end. And out of that, Paul says, there will be glory to God.

So friends, we must live as shining stars in the midst of a dark world, a world consumed by pride. We are called to be humble. But it starts with at home. It starts with us. It starts in this church.

We are more than a group that meets on a Sunday. We are more than a place to learn doctrine. We are more than a group that even likes one another. We are the living and the breathing body of Christ, called to unity, called to humility, called to helpfulness. And see your life, Paul says, like Paul was seeing the life of the Philippians.

See it backwards. He looked at their life from the perspective of the day then when Jesus returns. What would He say of them? How would they be presented to God? He says, it will be a magnificent celebration.

People who have been faithful to the end. One morning in 1888, and I'm finishing with this. 1888, a man by the name of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, a man who had spent his life amassing a great fortune from the manufacture and sale of weapons, he awoke one morning to read his own obituary in the newspaper. The obituary was printed as a result of a journalistic error. Alfred's brother had died and a reporter had carelessly reported the death of the wrong brother.

So his brother had died, not him. Any person would have been disturbed under the same circumstances, but to Alfred, the shock was overwhelming because in that obituary, he saw himself as the world saw him. The obituary talked about the dynamite king, the great weapon maker, is dead. Now this, as far as the general public was concerned, was the entire purpose of his life. None of his true intentions, his pursuit of science, his scientific pursuit to break down the barriers that separated men from ideas were recognised.

He was quite simply in the eyes of the public, a merchant of death. The inventor of just more weapons. As he read his obituary with shock, he resolved to make clear to the world the true meaning and purpose of his life as he understood it. And this would be done through the final use of his wealth. His last will and testament would be the expression of his life's ideals and the result ever since has become the most valued of prizes given to those who have done the most for the cause of peace, the Nobel Peace Prize.

In view of God's enormous humility shown in Jesus Christ, and in grateful thankfulness to that, we are called to live as shining stars in the midst of a dark, proud, self-centred world. So that on the day of Christ, we can say, Jesus, You are my Lord. I have lived my life as though You have been. And in humility, all these things I have done, I give to You as tribute. It's all been for You.

Jesus, all for Jesus. And so I humbly come to lay down what I have given and what I've done to You, my King. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise You and glorify You because we know that we can only be humble because You were humble first. And, Lord, we will always, always struggle to plumb those depths of humility.

We will always struggle to emulate that, and we can't. But, Father, help us to realise that we are called to nothing else, to nothing less. Father, in our church, we pray for unity. Father, in our church, we pray for a love that abounds. A love that just explodes with one another's joys, bearing with one another in difficulties, patiently waiting, seeking understanding.

Father, areas in our life where we need growth, we ask for Your growth. In our lives where there is self-righteousness, Lord, help us to consider ourselves in light of the cross of its enormous payment that was made that day for me. Lord, when we think we are humble, show us that we can be humbler still. But this morning, we also glory in the cross. We glory in the final day when Jesus will receive all the honour, all the respect, all the riches that He deserves.

And our hearts and our minds look forward to that day. And we set our sights again on that. And we ask, Lord, that with hearts that are redirected in that way, recalibrated towards that, Lord, that the things that we have thought are important that really aren't will fade. And that we will strive for humility, strive for unity, and strive for that helpfulness, that genuine practised love, that the world can therefore look at us, see our love for one another, and know that we are disciples of Jesus because of that love. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.