Sermon

Ep 480 | The Servant Of Sinners - Chris Osburn 12/25/22

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. I want to study a little bit on Philippians chapter 2, verses 5

    Philippians 2:5–11

  2. through 11 specifically on a couple of verses within that

  3. group Philippians. I love Philippians is a just a

  4. wonderful book very encouraging book that we can read from and

  5. gained so much encouragement from the will spend little time

  6. dealing with verses 5 through 11.

  7. It says they're beginning. In verse 5 of Philippians 2,

  8. will read that passage. It says, let this mind be in you

  9. which was also in Christ. Jesus who being in the form of

  10. God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made

  11. himself of no reputation taking the form of a bondservant and

  12. coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance.

  13. As a man, he humbled himself and became obedient To the point of

  14. death, even the death of the Cross.

  15. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the

  16. name, which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every

  17. knee should bow of those in heaven and those on Earth and

  18. those under the Earth and that every tongue should confess,

  19. that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father You

  20. know, in the past few maybe a couple three months ago we

  21. talked about a little bit of the Trinity.

  22. The godhead the mystery about it, the one God in three

  23. persons, God, the Father God, the son, and God the Holy

  24. Spirit, each of whom is fully God.

  25. And we know that also too. When we talk about Jesus, we

  26. realize that Jesus, you know, was part of that godhead and he

  27. came here To be with us, even as a baby, a crying screaming, you

  28. know, bed, waiting bedwetting, baby lying in a Manger that's

  29. God With Us. And the fact that Jesus was

  30. fully human is what separates actually Christianity from

  31. Judaism or separates Christianity from Islam.

  32. Those religions believe that there's no way in the world that

  33. a holy infinite. God could come down to this

  34. world and live among a sinful. World, they don't believe that.

  35. And in verse 7, Is where we're going to.

  36. It's going to tell us how and why that happened.

  37. How wide Jesus came here. So at verse 7 with the leading

  38. in from verse 6, it says but but made himself of no reputation

  39. taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of

  40. men. So what does that mean coming in

  41. the likeness of man or or taking the form of a bond sir?

  42. Jesus emptying himself, emptied himself is clearly something

  43. that he chose to do. It was his on his terms.

  44. Well, God, the father of course Institute, but Jesus came and

  45. emptied himself. Instead of you know, it taking

  46. all of what God had and all the powers that Jesus had Jesus

  47. chose to come here and empty himself.

  48. And we know that he that doesn't mean that he ceased to be God

  49. because he was fully God and fully man.

  50. So what does it mean to empty himself?

  51. And verse 7 answers that force in a couple of ways, one, he

  52. answers it by taking the form of a bondservant.

  53. That's what it means for him to empty himself, he didn't take

  54. off his divinity. He took off, he took on the form

  55. of a servant in the same word that's used earlier.

  56. The form of God, in the form of a certain being born, he's born

  57. in the likeness of men and two. It says coming in the likeness

  58. of men here as well. Jesus empties itself not by

  59. losing something, but by taking on something.

  60. And in these two verses we have a picture of Jesus as one person

  61. with with tuner, two natures. Verse 6 is talking about his

  62. divine nature, and verse 7 is talking about his human nature.

  63. We've seen Jesus is fully, God. And is a, he's also fully man

  64. and the word here in verse 7, for likeness this word here,

  65. that means the same as. That's how it's defined out of

  66. the old Greek, the same as. So, at a certain point in time

  67. Jesus, who was fully God, he became human just like you and I

  68. except with no sin, which is what we'll talk about in a

  69. minute. So, when we think about it,

  70. Jesus God the son took on a human body with flesh and blood

  71. bones. And just like we have everything

  72. like us and we have he was born a baby.

  73. This is a picture of Lizzy and Ice children when they were

  74. younger, wish, we could have him back to that age.

  75. So precious. So little so small, Anthony,

  76. Kylie and Emma. We're so proud of them.

  77. But my point is that, when this is what Jesus was, this is who,

  78. this is what Jesus would have been when he was a baby or a

  79. child. He would have had all the needs,

  80. he needs. What it needs to be fed, you

  81. would need to be changed. He would have needed to be, you

  82. know, he would have cried because he was hungry, whatever

  83. it may have been, you know, things are so chaotic when you

  84. have children when they're that age.

  85. We decided to have three at a very young age, really close

  86. together and we were dealing with all that in a very chaotic,

  87. a lot going on. And this is kind of what I'm

  88. talking about. But Jesus, emptying himself

  89. means we need to make sure that we do not minimalize what Jesus

  90. did when he came here. We can't, we can't miss the

  91. point that he had needs, just like our babies do as well or

  92. their human children do as well. He cried, he was hungry.

  93. He needed the sleep, he needed, you know, maybe he cried when he

  94. was thirsty. He also had a human mind.

  95. As a child, Jesus had to learn just like we learn to eat to

  96. walk to talk read and write he had emotions just like our

  97. emotions. Loneliness sorrow, you troubled

  98. in spirit, you know, Jesus experienced all of these

  99. emotions, the full depth of humanity, just like us.

  100. And I think that he still does feel those sometimes, this is

  101. truly amazing, that Jesus with one as one person with two

  102. distinct Nature's as human nature, and has a divine nature.

  103. Regarding Jesus birth, the angel said to Joseph, Mary will give

  104. birth to a son. That's his Humanity side.

  105. And his name will be called Emmanuel, that's his, which

  106. means god with us. That's his divinity.

  107. There, that's his, that's his deity.

  108. Even, the Virgin birth as fully human on full display, being

  109. born from a human mother and his and his, you know, his birth,

  110. his DD being on full explore display because of the Virgin

  111. birth as well. We think about these Nature's

  112. throughout the Bible in his human nature.

  113. We could say that at this point, maybe, when he was 5 or 10 or

  114. 1330, whatever may have been his divine nature exists eternally,

  115. And in his human nature, they were times when he was weak and

  116. tired and his divine nature. He, you know, he at the same

  117. time, experienced omnipotent power and we can see this in

  118. Mark for where Jesus was, you know, sleeping in a boat.

  119. That's his human side. But then, as he woke, he told

  120. the Seas to calm and stop and they did.

  121. That's his divine nature. The not Dynamic, you know, is

  122. sometimes mind-boggling when, when you think about it, how

  123. this could be, you know, it's life-changing.

  124. It takes us back to another phrase in verse 7.

  125. You know, when we see, you know, we've seen what it means for

  126. Jesus to empty himself by becoming fully Human, like us.

  127. But but why? Why did you know why did he do

  128. that? And this is where the Wonder,

  129. you know and the Mystery kind of goes to a whole another level.

  130. As I was putting this together, Jesus, emptying himself by

  131. taking on the form. Of a servant.

  132. Okay, that word that word in the Greek doulos, that's the

  133. original word there. And it's the Greek word for

  134. slave. And if we're reading this, in

  135. the first century, you know, the word immediately pops into our

  136. mind. That, you know, if you're a

  137. slave you don't have, you know, you don't have any rights, you

  138. don't have your freedom, you're working for somebody all the

  139. time, your existence is to serve somebody else.

  140. Jesus still in the form of God took on the form of a slave and

  141. that's not the only time the Bible talks about that.

  142. In fact, Jesus himself identifies himself as that way

  143. as well and Mark. 1045 Jesus, talking to his disciples,

  144. talking to them about serving, kind of like the context in

  145. Philippians 2 but it's about serving each other in, you know,

  146. within the church Mark 10:45 says the son of man came not to

    Mark 10:45

  147. be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many

  148. Jesus is telling us why here why he came and I want to look at

  149. three different reasons of why Jesus became human specifically.

  150. He came to this world became human.

  151. Why did Jesus become human? Number one, Jesus came to

  152. suffer, like you. When Jesus calls himself.

  153. The son of man. That's a title that we see

  154. throughout the Bible throughout the New Testament, it emphasizes

  155. his humanity and specifically in.

  156. Mark it emphasizes the hardships and sufferings that accompany,

  157. you know, human nature. Jesus is saying here that I came

  158. to experience what you experience in your Human Nature

  159. And if we're not careful, we can we can create a picture of

  160. Jesus, that he's nothing like us.

  161. You know, we can create that picture but in reality All of

  162. who he is on this Humana, Human Side is everything up like us.

  163. He's like I said, most ways will picture him as different ways

  164. that that really take us away from the reality.

  165. That Jesus specifically came like, came to be like us and

  166. experience what we experience. Are we tired?

  167. Jesus knows what it's like to be tired.

  168. Are you exhausted or worried or burned-out Beatdown?

  169. Jesus experienced all those things.

  170. What about emotional distress, so did Jesus?

  171. What about physical pain? Absolutely.

  172. Jesus experienced that. Do we experience relational her?

  173. So did Jesus. He was alienated betrayed

  174. criticize denied and ultimately condemned.

  175. You ever feel broken? Jesus was broken.

  176. Do we grieve Jesus Graves? It was sometimes cry out to God

  177. because we don't know what else to do.

  178. All were sitting doing. Just crying out to God, please,

  179. what, we can't take it anymore. Jesus was full of Sorrows crying

  180. out to God the father, and Desperation even asking the

  181. question of why? And whatever physical emotional,

  182. relational or weariness that we may have.

  183. We do not have a god that is distant from us and to help us

  184. with those matters. We have a God, Jesus who is

  185. familiar with what we're walking through and Jesus came to this

  186. world as a man to suffer like you.

  187. And I the language in Hebrews. Four verse 15.

  188. It says therefore we do not have a high priest who is unable to

  189. sympathize with our weaknesses but one who is in every respect

  190. has been tempted, as we are yet without sin.

  191. Sympathize with us in our weakness.

  192. He understands. Jesus, you know, he's able to

  193. identify, he suffered in all the way to the point of death would

  194. bring this to a second reason why Jesus came Jesus, came to

  195. sacrifice his fac rifice his life for you.

  196. And I want to point out with this point that, you know, Jesus

  197. is full. Humanity is absolutely

  198. necessary. For Jesus to give his life for

  199. us. mark, 10:45 for even the son of man came not to be served,

  200. but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, and

  201. the word for here in Mark 10:45 literally means instead of Or in

    Mark 10:45

  202. place of and in order for Jesus to die for us as his people.

  203. You know, he had to become like us as a person.

  204. The Bible makes this clear in Hebrews 2 verse 17 and talking

    Hebrews 2:17

  205. about Jesus. It says therefore he had to be

  206. made like his brothers. Basically like every man in

  207. humanity man and woman in every respect that so that he might

  208. become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of

  209. God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

  210. In other words of Jesus was not fully human.

  211. Like this, like us. He could not have paid the

  212. penalty due to us as humans. He had the experience temptation

  213. just like we do, overcoming those Temptations and then dying

  214. in our place. And I don't know, a full crowd,

  215. maybe we have visitors, maybe we don't, but if you're not a

  216. Christian, you know, or even if we are Christians, you know,

  217. it's always good to hear the good news of the Bible.

  218. The good news and the center core truth of the Bible.

  219. We have all been created by God. To have a relationship with him,

  220. but we have all sinned and been separated from God.

  221. And the Bible uses the word for how everybody has turned aside,

  222. and that's called sin. It looks different from

  223. everybody. In this building, you know, how

  224. we have separated ourselves because of sin.

  225. We've all turned aside from God and his ways to our own selfish

  226. ways. And our sin has separated us

  227. from God in a way that if we die in this state will be lost

  228. eternally. Separated from God, and will be,

  229. will spend eternity experience, he judgement do our sin.

  230. However, the good news of the Bible is that God loves us so

  231. much, that he provided a way for us to get that relationship back

  232. with him. God In the Flesh, came and

  233. manual. Jesus came.

  234. And he lived the perfect life that you.

  235. And I cannot live a life without seeing that is what he lived.

  236. And even though he had no sin to die, he died for our sin.

  237. He paid the price that we couldn't pay instead of you and

  238. me, he died the death that we deserve. and, After that after

  239. he died after the third day, he rose.

  240. He didn't stay dead for long. Three days later, he rose from

  241. the great, Conquering the enemy of death that we cannot conquer

  242. on our own and that's who Jesus is.

  243. He came to redeem us to God no matter what we've done in our

  244. relationships or in our past or whatever.

  245. Maybe if we believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and Obey what he

  246. is laid out for us, we can have that relationship and be with

  247. him for eternity as long. As we abide by the guidelines

  248. written in the scriptures. So the first true points are

  249. pretty awesome, but this next point that I want to make a

  250. really kind of I kind of struggled with honestly and the

  251. language I'm going to use is strong language. but it almost

  252. feels wrong to say, but I'm going to say it because Jesus

  253. said, And he's saying it, Philippians 2 verse 7.

    Philippians 2:7

  254. Why did Jesus come to take on human flesh?

  255. Why was he born in the likeness of men?

  256. Jesus came to be your servant. And let me explain that.

  257. He came the actual word here in Philippians 2 verse 7, that word

    Philippians 2:7

  258. is actually translated slave in the original Greek. and Mark

    Mark 10:45

  259. 10:45 it says even the son of man is talking about himself, I

  260. do not, I did not come to be served but I came to serve And

  261. this word in Mark 10:45 actually is translated it's not

    Mark 10:45

  262. translated slave it's translated as waiting on tables.

  263. So when Jesus look forward to describe why he came to you and

  264. me, he chose this word, he said I came to wait on you and when

  265. we think about waiting on somebody, you know, think about

  266. going to a restaurant, the waiter coming waiting on us.

  267. You know, what can I get you? Kai refill, your glass.

  268. How was dinner on? And on waiting on.

  269. You bringing you what you need, what you asked for Jesus.

  270. Is this is why I came, how can I help you?

  271. What can I do for you? What can I get you?

  272. I'm your servant. This is Jesus, the God In the

  273. Flesh saying that to you and I know religious teacher of any

  274. other religion. Talks like this.

  275. You know, we're supposed to, I'm, we supposed to serve deity,

  276. you know. This is deeding the fleshing,

  277. I'm here to serve you and it sounds crazy until we realize,

  278. you know, it's not crazy. It's really kind of a

  279. foundational thought of what Christianity is.

  280. Jesus did not come as a self-serving individual, who,

  281. you know, whose personal whims are to be catered to by his

  282. lowly servants. That's not why he came, that's

  283. not who he is, Jesus came to be the lowly servant for you.

  284. And I and Jesus is said, said to his father's in and, you know,

  285. we could take it and apply it to our lives today.

  286. And I did not come to be served by you and my relationship with

  287. you. I am your servant, I serve you I

  288. work for you. I can wait, I wait on you.

  289. Doesn't that sound kind of wrong to say?

  290. But it's what, you know, I want to be clear, what I'm not

  291. saying. The Bible does not mean when

  292. it's calling Jesus. Our servant the Bible, does it

  293. mean that we tell Jesus to do whatever, we ask him to do and

  294. he does it because he's our servant.

  295. That's not what I'm talking about.

  296. That's not what the Bible teaches.

  297. We do not have authority over Jesus.

  298. And it doesn't discount all the time that the Bible calls

  299. followers of Jesus Servants of him.

  300. We could, you know, there's a whole another lesson that can be

  301. given on on that as well. But the sense of, you know, when

  302. we think about it we can miss it that what Jesus actually does

  303. for us, what we ask him to do for us.

  304. The Christian Life Begins when we realize that we have sinned

  305. and we're separated from God and God, you know, there's no men of

  306. good that we can do. You know, to get that

  307. relationship back. We can't do enough.

  308. It's not, it's not a check list of things to do, you know, pray,

  309. this amount of times go to church, read the Bible, do all

  310. these things anywhere, in your way back to God, that misses the

  311. whole point. That's not what it's about.

  312. We can't cover our own sin, we need God to serve Us in some

  313. way, we need. Jesus sacrifice to cover over

  314. the stain of sin in our life. And Jesus says, I came to serve

  315. you. And when we, when we trust him

  316. to service in that way, That's when we start to understand

  317. exactly what all he can do for us.

  318. We then do the things that he asks of us to become a

  319. Christian. We Believe repent confess who

  320. were baptized for the remission of our sins but once we are a

  321. Christian once we do take that path and and take those steps

  322. into the church, you know we don't move on from that if you

  323. know like we just don't need him to service anymore.

  324. You know. Jesus didn't come to service

  325. just once he you know to save us from the penalty of sin, you

  326. know. Then we then it's all on our own

  327. from there on out. That's not the point.

  328. A lot of people actually look at the Christian like that way and

  329. experience it. He came to service every single

  330. day. so I want to put all this kind of together, you know, just

  331. as You know, Jesus existed in the form of God, Jesus exists in

  332. the form of human. And also how he served us.

  333. The whole reason one of the reasons why he came to be like,

  334. you and I, in order to serve you in my you and me.

  335. So when we're tired, weak burned out or beat down or discouraged

  336. depressed, we need to listen to what Jesus is saying to us.

  337. Jesus is saying, I'm here to serve you I'm here to wait on

  338. you was helping with the strength to get you throughout

  339. the day with all the peace that passes, all understanding with

  340. joy that supersedes all your circumstances.

  341. Jesus says, I'm here to serve you.

  342. That is why I came as a human. That's one of the reasons why we

  343. think about it. You know what is prayer.

  344. What's the purpose of prayer, right?

  345. We're saying God, thank you for all these things but also got.

  346. I need your help. I need, I'm asking for this.

  347. I'm asking for that. I'm praying for this person, I'm

  348. praying for that person and praying for this circumstance,

  349. you know, we're asking for God's service every single day.

  350. All the time, we pray, And he's told us to do that and God

  351. actually Delights in us doing at that he says, ask you know, he

  352. wants us, he wants us to pray to him.

  353. He tells us to pray to him and ask for things.

  354. If it is according to his will you know, even our family life

  355. you know, when Lizzy and I pray we always pray for wisdom and

  356. guidance for raising our kids up because we need it.

  357. We cannot do it on our own. If we didn't have the guidance

  358. of God in Jesus, we We be off and right field.

  359. Who knows where we cannot do it without and some people think,

  360. you know? Yeah, that's Christianity, you

  361. know, Christianity is for weak people because they can't do it

  362. on their own. There's actually a thought

  363. process in a thought out there that people think that way.

  364. Christianity is for those who need a crutch, they can't do it

  365. on their own. Some people.

  366. You think, you know, I don't need God to serve me.

  367. I get up every morning. I work hard, I provide for my

  368. family. I do all these things.

  369. I make all kinds of decisions. I do all these good things.

  370. And maybe that's the case. But the people who think that we

  371. need to understand, you know who who gave them that ability to

  372. work hard, who gave them the ability to breathe and to get up

  373. every morning and have a ride. Who made that possible?

  374. There is not one person in this Gathering today, who was

  375. self-sufficient. None of us are every person is

  376. ultimately God depending you know, even people who say they

  377. hate God. You know every breath that they

  378. take is given from God, they don't realize how they depend on

  379. me. You know, I think about some of

  380. the struggles that we have experienced here in the

  381. congregation recently, just in the past few years.

  382. It seems like you know, we have the loss of That Brent

  383. experience with, with his son, the recent deaths of runnels

  384. mother Brenda son, Bob Duncan Cindy's, husband, Mercy

  385. Camarillo. We think about the struggles of

  386. sister Bobbie the pain that she goes through every single day

  387. all day long. What she deals with the the

  388. daily infirmities that Virgil and Janet son go through on and

  389. on and on and on there is so many things that this

  390. congregation has gone through recently.

  391. I showed a picture of my kids but I want to show you one more.

  392. Some of you may recognize this picture, some of you may not

  393. this is Tyler brancato. Frank and Tina's, first child.

  394. Frank was kind enough to send me this picture last night and I

  395. talked to him for a few minutes last night and so thankful that

  396. he did about Tyler situation, he told me that Tyler Situation was

  397. because of lack of oxygen prior to birth.

  398. And this lack of oxygen. Eventually damaged his spinal

  399. cord to a point to where it caused his body, not to be able

  400. to Metabolize. The food intake that he was

  401. having that correct? And because of that condition.

  402. The care that it took for him to remain alive was far and above

  403. what, Frank and Tina or any other parent would ever expect.

  404. He lived just less than a few than four weeks.

  405. I'm sorry for months before his passing and during those

  406. precious weeks I can remember Frank and Tina constantly day

  407. and night, caring for that. Little boy taking shifts.

  408. Okay, you got him for three, four hours, whatever, whatever

  409. they agreed upon to care. For this young man, who could

  410. not care for himself. Taking care of his needs.

  411. I remember one time we were sitting in worship and all of a

  412. sudden Frank popped up and just left, and I believe you got a

  413. page on his pager of 9/11, he just up and left, we knew all

  414. knew what was going on it. What he needed to take care of,

  415. he went home to be with Tina because something was going on.

  416. Because that boy needs to be cared for in some way.

  417. I don't pretend to understand or no. all of the emotions that go

  418. along with that, or with any other Problem that somebody may

  419. be having in their life at that time.

  420. We live in a fallen weary and painful world with all kinds of

  421. questions that we don't have answers to.

  422. But we do know that we have a God who serves us in a way in

  423. the middle of hurt and pain and all the questions, you know.

  424. God was Tyler servant. You know, the Bible clearly

  425. teaches that when that little baby boy, breathe his last

  426. breath, God himself, was there to serve that little boy's body

  427. in a way that in the next. Instant, he woke up to Glory

  428. with him in that beautiful. God serves Us in so many

  429. different ways. And so it is with others who may

  430. have passed as well, that we just mentioned.

  431. Even those who are not Christians experience the same

  432. painful circumstances, but I think all of us know, can they

  433. can agree that it is far easier to get through something?

  434. When we know that we got Jesus on our side that we can go to

  435. him, we can pray to him, we can ask him for Comfort asking for

  436. strength, that's God, for strength, whatever it may be.

  437. We know that he is serving us. The good news of the Bible that

  438. Jesus came to service to wait on us and to be are serving.

  439. He knows he that he he knows and he's able to sympathize as well.

  440. There's coming a day, you know, when will breathe our last

  441. breath. We don't know when to be today,

  442. tomorrow years from now, whatever the Lord decides.

  443. But whenever that moments come when you know that all of us who

  444. are in Jesus or you know, in that moment when our hearts fail

  445. or lungs fail or whatever it may be, The fully Divine Son of God

  446. who conquered death will be there to serve us at that point.

  447. That's great. All glory be to Christ who being

  448. in the very form of God did not consider equality with God,

  449. something to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form

  450. of a servant being born in the likeness of men.

  451. Therefore God has also got also has highly exalted him and given

  452. him the name which is above every name that at the name of

  453. Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on

  454. Earth and those under the Earth. And that every tongue should

  455. confess that Jesus Christ. Is the Lord?

  456. To the glory of God, the Father. Pray that something's been said,

  457. the Gospel of Jesus includes hearing the good news that Jesus

  458. came and died for our sins has made a way for us to be redeemed

  459. to God. Within believe that Jesus is the

  460. son of God, and believing is a loaded word.

  461. But leaving, you know, changes our current lifestyle.

  462. You know, we turn to Jesus and follow the model that he has set

  463. before us. That's repentance.

  464. We confess his name as being the Son of God and were baptized for

  465. the remission of sin. And then, and only then Jesus

  466. adds us to his church. If there's one here who would

  467. like to take those steps or there's one here who needs to

  468. make any sort of public confession or just needs the

  469. prayers of church that Jesus can help us with.

  470. We ask you to please do that while we stand while we see.

  471. We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the

  472. Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you

  473. would like any additional information or you would like to

  474. receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.

  475. Please email us at info at True Church of Christ

  476. Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays

  477. at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.

  478. Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our

  479. honored guest.