Sermon
Ep 480 | The Servant Of Sinners - Chris Osburn 12/25/22
Publisher transcript
Transcript
-
I want to study a little bit on Philippians chapter 2, verses 5
-
through 11 specifically on a couple of verses within that
-
group Philippians. I love Philippians is a just a
-
wonderful book very encouraging book that we can read from and
-
gained so much encouragement from the will spend little time
-
dealing with verses 5 through 11.
-
It says they're beginning. In verse 5 of Philippians 2,
-
will read that passage. It says, 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.
-
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 those on Earth and
-
those under the Earth and that every tongue should confess,
-
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father You
-
know, in the past few maybe a couple three months ago we
-
talked about a little bit of the Trinity.
-
The godhead the mystery about it, the one God in three
-
persons, God, the Father God, the son, and God the Holy
-
Spirit, each of whom is fully God.
-
And we know that also too. When we talk about Jesus, we
-
realize that Jesus, you know, was part of that godhead and he
-
came here To be with us, even as a baby, a crying screaming, you
-
know, bed, waiting bedwetting, baby lying in a Manger that's
-
God With Us. And the fact that Jesus was
-
fully human is what separates actually Christianity from
-
Judaism or separates Christianity from Islam.
-
Those religions believe that there's no way in the world that
-
a holy infinite. God could come down to this
-
world and live among a sinful. World, they don't believe that.
-
And in verse 7, Is where we're going to.
-
It's going to tell us how and why that happened.
-
How wide Jesus came here. So at verse 7 with the leading
-
in from verse 6, it says but but made himself of no reputation
-
taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of
-
men. So what does that mean coming in
-
the likeness of man or or taking the form of a bond sir?
-
Jesus emptying himself, emptied himself is clearly something
-
that he chose to do. It was his on his terms.
-
Well, God, the father of course Institute, but Jesus came and
-
emptied himself. Instead of you know, it taking
-
all of what God had and all the powers that Jesus had Jesus
-
chose to come here and empty himself.
-
And we know that he that doesn't mean that he ceased to be God
-
because he was fully God and fully man.
-
So what does it mean to empty himself?
-
And verse 7 answers that force in a couple of ways, one, he
-
answers it by taking the form of a bondservant.
-
That's what it means for him to empty himself, he didn't take
-
off his divinity. He took off, he took on the form
-
of a servant in the same word that's used earlier.
-
The form of God, in the form of a certain being born, he's born
-
in the likeness of men and two. It says coming in the likeness
-
of men here as well. Jesus empties itself not by
-
losing something, but by taking on something.
-
And in these two verses we have a picture of Jesus as one person
-
with with tuner, two natures. Verse 6 is talking about his
-
divine nature, and verse 7 is talking about his human nature.
-
We've seen Jesus is fully, God. And is a, he's also fully man
-
and the word here in verse 7, for likeness this word here,
-
that means the same as. That's how it's defined out of
-
the old Greek, the same as. So, at a certain point in time
-
Jesus, who was fully God, he became human just like you and I
-
except with no sin, which is what we'll talk about in a
-
minute. So, when we think about it,
-
Jesus God the son took on a human body with flesh and blood
-
bones. And just like we have everything
-
like us and we have he was born a baby.
-
This is a picture of Lizzy and Ice children when they were
-
younger, wish, we could have him back to that age.
-
So precious. So little so small, Anthony,
-
Kylie and Emma. We're so proud of them.
-
But my point is that, when this is what Jesus was, this is who,
-
this is what Jesus would have been when he was a baby or a
-
child. He would have had all the needs,
-
he needs. What it needs to be fed, you
-
would need to be changed. He would have needed to be, you
-
know, he would have cried because he was hungry, whatever
-
it may have been, you know, things are so chaotic when you
-
have children when they're that age.
-
We decided to have three at a very young age, really close
-
together and we were dealing with all that in a very chaotic,
-
a lot going on. And this is kind of what I'm
-
talking about. But Jesus, emptying himself
-
means we need to make sure that we do not minimalize what Jesus
-
did when he came here. We can't, we can't miss the
-
point that he had needs, just like our babies do as well or
-
their human children do as well. He cried, he was hungry.
-
He needed the sleep, he needed, you know, maybe he cried when he
-
was thirsty. He also had a human mind.
-
As a child, Jesus had to learn just like we learn to eat to
-
walk to talk read and write he had emotions just like our
-
emotions. Loneliness sorrow, you troubled
-
in spirit, you know, Jesus experienced all of these
-
emotions, the full depth of humanity, just like us.
-
And I think that he still does feel those sometimes, this is
-
truly amazing, that Jesus with one as one person with two
-
distinct Nature's as human nature, and has a divine nature.
-
Regarding Jesus birth, the angel said to Joseph, Mary will give
-
birth to a son. That's his Humanity side.
-
And his name will be called Emmanuel, that's his, which
-
means god with us. That's his divinity.
-
There, that's his, that's his deity.
-
Even, the Virgin birth as fully human on full display, being
-
born from a human mother and his and his, you know, his birth,
-
his DD being on full explore display because of the Virgin
-
birth as well. We think about these Nature's
-
throughout the Bible in his human nature.
-
We could say that at this point, maybe, when he was 5 or 10 or
-
1330, whatever may have been his divine nature exists eternally,
-
And in his human nature, they were times when he was weak and
-
tired and his divine nature. He, you know, he at the same
-
time, experienced omnipotent power and we can see this in
-
Mark for where Jesus was, you know, sleeping in a boat.
-
That's his human side. But then, as he woke, he told
-
the Seas to calm and stop and they did.
-
That's his divine nature. The not Dynamic, you know, is
-
sometimes mind-boggling when, when you think about it, how
-
this could be, you know, it's life-changing.
-
It takes us back to another phrase in verse 7.
-
You know, when we see, you know, we've seen what it means for
-
Jesus to empty himself by becoming fully Human, like us.
-
But but why? Why did you know why did he do
-
that? And this is where the Wonder,
-
you know and the Mystery kind of goes to a whole another level.
-
As I was putting this together, Jesus, emptying himself by
-
taking on the form. Of a servant.
-
Okay, that word that word in the Greek doulos, that's the
-
original word there. And it's the Greek word for
-
slave. And if we're reading this, in
-
the first century, you know, the word immediately pops into our
-
mind. That, you know, if you're a
-
slave you don't have, you know, you don't have any rights, you
-
don't have your freedom, you're working for somebody all the
-
time, your existence is to serve somebody else.
-
Jesus still in the form of God took on the form of a slave and
-
that's not the only time the Bible talks about that.
-
In fact, Jesus himself identifies himself as that way
-
as well and Mark. 1045 Jesus, talking to his disciples,
-
talking to them about serving, kind of like the context in
-
Philippians 2 but it's about serving each other in, you know,
-
within the church Mark 10:45 says the son of man came not to
-
be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many
-
Jesus is telling us why here why he came and I want to look at
-
three different reasons of why Jesus became human specifically.
-
He came to this world became human.
-
Why did Jesus become human? Number one, Jesus came to
-
suffer, like you. When Jesus calls himself.
-
The son of man. That's a title that we see
-
throughout the Bible throughout the New Testament, it emphasizes
-
his humanity and specifically in.
-
Mark it emphasizes the hardships and sufferings that accompany,
-
you know, human nature. Jesus is saying here that I came
-
to experience what you experience in your Human Nature
-
And if we're not careful, we can we can create a picture of
-
Jesus, that he's nothing like us.
-
You know, we can create that picture but in reality All of
-
who he is on this Humana, Human Side is everything up like us.
-
He's like I said, most ways will picture him as different ways
-
that that really take us away from the reality.
-
That Jesus specifically came like, came to be like us and
-
experience what we experience. Are we tired?
-
Jesus knows what it's like to be tired.
-
Are you exhausted or worried or burned-out Beatdown?
-
Jesus experienced all those things.
-
What about emotional distress, so did Jesus?
-
What about physical pain? Absolutely.
-
Jesus experienced that. Do we experience relational her?
-
So did Jesus. He was alienated betrayed
-
criticize denied and ultimately condemned.
-
You ever feel broken? Jesus was broken.
-
Do we grieve Jesus Graves? It was sometimes cry out to God
-
because we don't know what else to do.
-
All were sitting doing. Just crying out to God, please,
-
what, we can't take it anymore. Jesus was full of Sorrows crying
-
out to God the father, and Desperation even asking the
-
question of why? And whatever physical emotional,
-
relational or weariness that we may have.
-
We do not have a god that is distant from us and to help us
-
with those matters. We have a God, Jesus who is
-
familiar with what we're walking through and Jesus came to this
-
world as a man to suffer like you.
-
And I the language in Hebrews. Four verse 15.
-
It says therefore we do not have a high priest who is unable to
-
sympathize with our weaknesses but one who is in every respect
-
has been tempted, as we are yet without sin.
-
Sympathize with us in our weakness.
-
He understands. Jesus, you know, he's able to
-
identify, he suffered in all the way to the point of death would
-
bring this to a second reason why Jesus came Jesus, came to
-
sacrifice his fac rifice his life for you.
-
And I want to point out with this point that, you know, Jesus
-
is full. Humanity is absolutely
-
necessary. For Jesus to give his life for
-
us. 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, and
-
the word for here in Mark 10:45 literally means instead of Or in
-
place of and in order for Jesus to die for us as his people.
-
You know, he had to become like us as a person.
-
The Bible makes this clear in Hebrews 2 verse 17 and talking
-
about Jesus. It says therefore he had to be
-
made like his brothers. Basically like every man in
-
humanity man and woman in every respect that so that he might
-
become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of
-
God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
-
In other words of Jesus was not fully human.
-
Like this, like us. He could not have paid the
-
penalty due to us as humans. He had the experience temptation
-
just like we do, overcoming those Temptations and then dying
-
in our place. And I don't know, a full crowd,
-
maybe we have visitors, maybe we don't, but if you're not a
-
Christian, you know, or even if we are Christians, you know,
-
it's always good to hear the good news of the Bible.
-
The good news and the center core truth of the Bible.
-
We have all been created by God. To have a relationship with him,
-
but we have all sinned and been separated from God.
-
And the Bible uses the word for how everybody has turned aside,
-
and that's called sin. It looks different from
-
everybody. In this building, you know, how
-
we have separated ourselves because of sin.
-
We've all turned aside from God and his ways to our own selfish
-
ways. And our sin has separated us
-
from God in a way that if we die in this state will be lost
-
eternally. Separated from God, and will be,
-
will spend eternity experience, he judgement do our sin.
-
However, the good news of the Bible is that God loves us so
-
much, that he provided a way for us to get that relationship back
-
with him. God In the Flesh, came and
-
manual. Jesus came.
-
And he lived the perfect life that you.
-
And I cannot live a life without seeing that is what he lived.
-
And even though he had no sin to die, he died for our sin.
-
He paid the price that we couldn't pay instead of you and
-
me, he died the death that we deserve. and, After that after
-
he died after the third day, he rose.
-
He didn't stay dead for long. Three days later, he rose from
-
the great, Conquering the enemy of death that we cannot conquer
-
on our own and that's who Jesus is.
-
He came to redeem us to God no matter what we've done in our
-
relationships or in our past or whatever.
-
Maybe if we believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and Obey what he
-
is laid out for us, we can have that relationship and be with
-
him for eternity as long. As we abide by the guidelines
-
written in the scriptures. So the first true points are
-
pretty awesome, but this next point that I want to make a
-
really kind of I kind of struggled with honestly and the
-
language I'm going to use is strong language. but it almost
-
feels wrong to say, but I'm going to say it because Jesus
-
said, And he's saying it, Philippians 2 verse 7.
-
Why did Jesus come to take on human flesh?
-
Why was he born in the likeness of men?
-
Jesus came to be your servant. And let me explain that.
-
He came the actual word here in Philippians 2 verse 7, that word
-
is actually translated slave in the original Greek. and Mark
-
10:45 it says even the son of man is talking about himself, I
-
do not, I did not come to be served but I came to serve And
-
this word in Mark 10:45 actually is translated it's not
-
translated slave it's translated as waiting on tables.
-
So when Jesus look forward to describe why he came to you and
-
me, he chose this word, he said I came to wait on you and when
-
we think about waiting on somebody, you know, think about
-
going to a restaurant, the waiter coming waiting on us.
-
You know, what can I get you? Kai refill, your glass.
-
How was dinner on? And on waiting on.
-
You bringing you what you need, what you asked for Jesus.
-
Is this is why I came, how can I help you?
-
What can I do for you? What can I get you?
-
I'm your servant. This is Jesus, the God In the
-
Flesh saying that to you and I know religious teacher of any
-
other religion. Talks like this.
-
You know, we're supposed to, I'm, we supposed to serve deity,
-
you know. This is deeding the fleshing,
-
I'm here to serve you and it sounds crazy until we realize,
-
you know, it's not crazy. It's really kind of a
-
foundational thought of what Christianity is.
-
Jesus did not come as a self-serving individual, who,
-
you know, whose personal whims are to be catered to by his
-
lowly servants. That's not why he came, that's
-
not who he is, Jesus came to be the lowly servant for you.
-
And I and Jesus is said, said to his father's in and, you know,
-
we could take it and apply it to our lives today.
-
And I did not come to be served by you and my relationship with
-
you. I am your servant, I serve you I
-
work for you. I can wait, I wait on you.
-
Doesn't that sound kind of wrong to say?
-
But it's what, you know, I want to be clear, what I'm not
-
saying. The Bible does not mean when
-
it's calling Jesus. Our servant the Bible, does it
-
mean that we tell Jesus to do whatever, we ask him to do and
-
he does it because he's our servant.
-
That's not what I'm talking about.
-
That's not what the Bible teaches.
-
We do not have authority over Jesus.
-
And it doesn't discount all the time that the Bible calls
-
followers of Jesus Servants of him.
-
We could, you know, there's a whole another lesson that can be
-
given on on that as well. But the sense of, you know, when
-
we think about it we can miss it that what Jesus actually does
-
for us, what we ask him to do for us.
-
The Christian Life Begins when we realize that we have sinned
-
and we're separated from God and God, you know, there's no men of
-
good that we can do. You know, to get that
-
relationship back. We can't do enough.
-
It's not, it's not a check list of things to do, you know, pray,
-
this amount of times go to church, read the Bible, do all
-
these things anywhere, in your way back to God, that misses the
-
whole point. That's not what it's about.
-
We can't cover our own sin, we need God to serve Us in some
-
way, we need. Jesus sacrifice to cover over
-
the stain of sin in our life. And Jesus says, I came to serve
-
you. And when we, when we trust him
-
to service in that way, That's when we start to understand
-
exactly what all he can do for us.
-
We then do the things that he asks of us to become a
-
Christian. We Believe repent confess who
-
were baptized for the remission of our sins but once we are a
-
Christian once we do take that path and and take those steps
-
into the church, you know we don't move on from that if you
-
know like we just don't need him to service anymore.
-
You know. Jesus didn't come to service
-
just once he you know to save us from the penalty of sin, you
-
know. Then we then it's all on our own
-
from there on out. That's not the point.
-
A lot of people actually look at the Christian like that way and
-
experience it. He came to service every single
-
day. so I want to put all this kind of together, you know, just
-
as You know, Jesus existed in the form of God, Jesus exists in
-
the form of human. And also how he served us.
-
The whole reason one of the reasons why he came to be like,
-
you and I, in order to serve you in my you and me.
-
So when we're tired, weak burned out or beat down or discouraged
-
depressed, we need to listen to what Jesus is saying to us.
-
Jesus is saying, I'm here to serve you I'm here to wait on
-
you was helping with the strength to get you throughout
-
the day with all the peace that passes, all understanding with
-
joy that supersedes all your circumstances.
-
Jesus says, I'm here to serve you.
-
That is why I came as a human. That's one of the reasons why we
-
think about it. You know what is prayer.
-
What's the purpose of prayer, right?
-
We're saying God, thank you for all these things but also got.
-
I need your help. I need, I'm asking for this.
-
I'm asking for that. I'm praying for this person, I'm
-
praying for that person and praying for this circumstance,
-
you know, we're asking for God's service every single day.
-
All the time, we pray, And he's told us to do that and God
-
actually Delights in us doing at that he says, ask you know, he
-
wants us, he wants us to pray to him.
-
He tells us to pray to him and ask for things.
-
If it is according to his will you know, even our family life
-
you know, when Lizzy and I pray we always pray for wisdom and
-
guidance for raising our kids up because we need it.
-
We cannot do it on our own. If we didn't have the guidance
-
of God in Jesus, we We be off and right field.
-
Who knows where we cannot do it without and some people think,
-
you know? Yeah, that's Christianity, you
-
know, Christianity is for weak people because they can't do it
-
on their own. There's actually a thought
-
process in a thought out there that people think that way.
-
Christianity is for those who need a crutch, they can't do it
-
on their own. Some people.
-
You think, you know, I don't need God to serve me.
-
I get up every morning. I work hard, I provide for my
-
family. I do all these things.
-
I make all kinds of decisions. I do all these good things.
-
And maybe that's the case. But the people who think that we
-
need to understand, you know who who gave them that ability to
-
work hard, who gave them the ability to breathe and to get up
-
every morning and have a ride. Who made that possible?
-
There is not one person in this Gathering today, who was
-
self-sufficient. None of us are every person is
-
ultimately God depending you know, even people who say they
-
hate God. You know every breath that they
-
take is given from God, they don't realize how they depend on
-
me. You know, I think about some of
-
the struggles that we have experienced here in the
-
congregation recently, just in the past few years.
-
It seems like you know, we have the loss of That Brent
-
experience with, with his son, the recent deaths of runnels
-
mother Brenda son, Bob Duncan Cindy's, husband, Mercy
-
Camarillo. We think about the struggles of
-
sister Bobbie the pain that she goes through every single day
-
all day long. What she deals with the the
-
daily infirmities that Virgil and Janet son go through on and
-
on and on and on there is so many things that this
-
congregation has gone through recently.
-
I showed a picture of my kids but I want to show you one more.
-
Some of you may recognize this picture, some of you may not
-
this is Tyler brancato. Frank and Tina's, first child.
-
Frank was kind enough to send me this picture last night and I
-
talked to him for a few minutes last night and so thankful that
-
he did about Tyler situation, he told me that Tyler Situation was
-
because of lack of oxygen prior to birth.
-
And this lack of oxygen. Eventually damaged his spinal
-
cord to a point to where it caused his body, not to be able
-
to Metabolize. The food intake that he was
-
having that correct? And because of that condition.
-
The care that it took for him to remain alive was far and above
-
what, Frank and Tina or any other parent would ever expect.
-
He lived just less than a few than four weeks.
-
I'm sorry for months before his passing and during those
-
precious weeks I can remember Frank and Tina constantly day
-
and night, caring for that. Little boy taking shifts.
-
Okay, you got him for three, four hours, whatever, whatever
-
they agreed upon to care. For this young man, who could
-
not care for himself. Taking care of his needs.
-
I remember one time we were sitting in worship and all of a
-
sudden Frank popped up and just left, and I believe you got a
-
page on his pager of 9/11, he just up and left, we knew all
-
knew what was going on it. What he needed to take care of,
-
he went home to be with Tina because something was going on.
-
Because that boy needs to be cared for in some way.
-
I don't pretend to understand or no. all of the emotions that go
-
along with that, or with any other Problem that somebody may
-
be having in their life at that time.
-
We live in a fallen weary and painful world with all kinds of
-
questions that we don't have answers to.
-
But we do know that we have a God who serves us in a way in
-
the middle of hurt and pain and all the questions, you know.
-
God was Tyler servant. You know, the Bible clearly
-
teaches that when that little baby boy, breathe his last
-
breath, God himself, was there to serve that little boy's body
-
in a way that in the next. Instant, he woke up to Glory
-
with him in that beautiful. God serves Us in so many
-
different ways. And so it is with others who may
-
have passed as well, that we just mentioned.
-
Even those who are not Christians experience the same
-
painful circumstances, but I think all of us know, can they
-
can agree that it is far easier to get through something?
-
When we know that we got Jesus on our side that we can go to
-
him, we can pray to him, we can ask him for Comfort asking for
-
strength, that's God, for strength, whatever it may be.
-
We know that he is serving us. The good news of the Bible that
-
Jesus came to service to wait on us and to be are serving.
-
He knows he that he he knows and he's able to sympathize as well.
-
There's coming a day, you know, when will breathe our last
-
breath. We don't know when to be today,
-
tomorrow years from now, whatever the Lord decides.
-
But whenever that moments come when you know that all of us who
-
are in Jesus or you know, in that moment when our hearts fail
-
or lungs fail or whatever it may be, The fully Divine Son of God
-
who conquered death will be there to serve us at that point.
-
That's great. All glory be to Christ who being
-
in the very form of God did not consider equality with God,
-
something to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form
-
of a servant being born in the likeness of men.
-
Therefore God has also got 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 those on
-
Earth and those under the Earth. And that every tongue should
-
confess that Jesus Christ. Is the Lord?
-
To the glory of God, the Father. Pray that something's been said,
-
the Gospel of Jesus includes hearing the good news that Jesus
-
came and died for our sins has made a way for us to be redeemed
-
to God. Within believe that Jesus is the
-
son of God, and believing is a loaded word.
-
But leaving, you know, changes our current lifestyle.
-
You know, we turn to Jesus and follow the model that he has set
-
before us. That's repentance.
-
We confess his name as being the Son of God and were baptized for
-
the remission of sin. And then, and only then Jesus
-
adds us to his church. If there's one here who would
-
like to take those steps or there's one here who needs to
-
make any sort of public confession or just needs the
-
prayers of church that Jesus can help us with.
-
We ask you to please do that while we stand while we see.
-
We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the
-
Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you
-
would like any additional information or you would like to
-
receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.
-
Please email us at info at True Church of Christ
-
Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays
-
at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.
-
Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our
-
honored guest.