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00:00 Amen. So the first thing I want to look at today is why is it important to have
00:06 this concept and connect all these different dots of Jesus's life together? Understand that he was God and then
00:12 became man. Why is it important and I think one word describes it and that
00:19 word is vain glory. You see in this text right before our
00:25 text uh in Philippians chapter 2 verse three
00:31 Paul says do not do anything out of selfish ambition or conceit. He was talking to
00:38 his church to Philippian church. There was troubles going on. People were arguing a bit and he says do not do
00:46 anything out of selfish ambition or conceit. Another word for conceit is
00:52 vain glory. And actually the um the Greek word actually is made out of two words of kinosis and doxia means
00:58 emptying glory. Don't do anything out of empty glory.
01:03 And he's really describing here the human condition.
01:08 We are empty of glory and we try so many things to to acquire
01:16 glory for ourselves. Some of us go to the gym and work out to get glorious bodies, right? Some of us have many many
01:23 children or children we see our glory in our children. Uh some of us we what we do is we we go out and we accumulate
01:30 positions and possessions and status and wealth and we try all kinds of
01:36 things to to to fill that gap that that empty glory that we have inside of us.
01:44 Usually we want to we get it through getting the approval, the love and the esteem of others.
01:51 We want to be respected. We want to have power control.
01:57 We want to have that glory. And we think most of us, many of us
02:03 think that that bridge from our empty glory to having full glory is success.
02:12 However we define success is how we think we will achieve that
02:19 glory. Therefore we we we get our jobs and we get our positions and we get our titles
02:28 and we kind of become little bit like like drug addicts because when we first when we first
02:35 taste success oh we love it. We we love how it tastes from the first time we
02:41 have a piano recital and everybody claps or the first time we we we we shoot a
02:46 goal and and our pals comes and hug us and everybody dabs, you know,
02:52 from the first time we we we get a a a job promotion
02:57 or we get that big paycheck or we have our child, whatever whatever
03:04 gives us that success when when we first taste it, we want more
03:11 and we want more. We become what the world will call driven people. We become ambitious people.
03:19 Now we we most people who are very driven and very ambitious come from a position of
03:26 wanting more glory of actually having low self-esteem.
03:32 and we try everything possible to acquire that esteem whatever we can.
03:42 Now we people might say in this world right now the problem with us is that we try to get that approval and that love
03:49 and that esteem from the outside world. So now new age philosophy tells us no no
03:55 no you're getting all wrong. The reason you're so hungry for it is because you're trying to get it from all other places. What you must do? You must love
04:02 yourself and you must approve of yourself.
04:07 And if you love yourself and approve yourself, then you will not be running around like this hungry esteemed success
04:14 addict. No, you you will feel good inside.
04:20 I mean, has does that work for you? Because if you look at anthropology,
04:27 philosophy, psychology, they all say one thing. We
04:32 are relational beings. We are communal beings.
04:40 Just if everybody thinks that you're a monster, saying that, "Oh, I love myself
04:47 does not really fill you." We need the approval of others. We need
04:53 the love of others. We need the esteem of others. They say the praise of the
04:60 most praiseworthy or the praise of the praiseworthy is above all reward.
05:05 We want to be loved by others. See, so the problem is to to counter the problem
05:12 of self-esteem is to have the esteem to have the love and to have the approval
05:19 of those who we esteem.
05:24 Now there's different aspects of how that fleshes out. Not everybody becomes driven. No, our lowest self-esteem also
05:32 fleshes out differently. It fleshes out in a way that we become shy or we we we don't want to go out. We don't want to
05:37 communicate with people. We we are very lowly people. But in the same way we are only just thinking about ourselves.
05:45 So what is the solution? What is the solution to the empty self?
05:54 Well, Paul says this, your attitude should be the same as that
06:02 of Christ Jesus. He says something happens with Christ.
06:08 And when we look at what happened with Christ, the pilgrimage of Christ, the fact that he was God and became man and
06:16 died and then rose again, if we look at that and then have the same mind,
06:24 we will have fullness.
06:29 So what is it that happens? Well, he goes into this this hymn right after
06:34 this from verses 26 to 11. And this is where we're going to spend the most our time on today. But he says one thing.
06:43 Christ emptied himself. And it's interesting just now I said
06:49 that the problem is empty glory. And here he uses the same word kinosis
06:56 again and says Christ emptied himself. Kinosis.
07:04 So somehow the the trick the thing that needs to be done is an emptying and
07:09 having the same mind of Christ to empty ourselves.
07:14 Now we're going to spend some time looking at how Christ emptied himself.
07:21 And he did this in three ways.
07:26 his renunciation, his incarnation
07:32 and his crucifixion. Let's look at the first one, his
07:39 renunciation. We must understand one thing about Jesus
07:44 first. Who being in very nature God, let's stop there.
07:51 He is in very nature God. He was, he is, he always will be. He was in a glorious
07:60 place. He was with God. He is God. In John, it says the word was with God. The word was God. And then the word became
08:07 flesh. But he was eternally, beautifully, majestically God of
08:14 infinite status. He had infinite possession, infinite power.
08:22 None of us can we can probably not even imagine how glorious and how beautiful and how majestic he was.
08:30 He's the second person of the trinity. He always was God. In very nature he is
08:36 God. And then it says and I'm using the n the NIV here did not consider equality
08:43 with God something to be used to his own advantage.
08:52 In this world where we are all about claiming our entitlements,
08:58 getting possessions and status, trying to rise the ladders and willing
09:04 to hurt other people, step over people to get status,
09:10 to get possessions and positions. Jesus who was majestically God
09:19 did not use that for his own advantage. No, he was willing to renunciate his
09:26 position for us.
09:31 He was willing to be humbled to lose status so he can be in the
09:37 business of reconciliation. He was willing to give up his titles,
09:44 his position and possession so that he could reach out to mankind.
09:52 How many of us here are willing to give up our positions, our jobs, our possessions
09:57 so that we can reach out to another? That's what it means to have the mind of Christ.
10:05 A couple months back, I um stood here in the pulpit and I was speaking about forgiveness.
10:11 Um and you guys, some of you guys might remember I I told you guys a story that happened in my family about my father
10:16 and my uncle um and how they had a um a
10:22 joint house in Italy. And um I think some of you guys remember, but for those who don't remember, let me just refresh
10:27 a bit. Um what happened is that my father had to write over or wrote over
10:32 the rights of the house to my uncle because we moved to Malaysia. Um so for easy um transactions and and money
10:40 management and and house management in in Italy. So this year earlier this year we wanted
10:46 to go back to that house and do a a family holiday. And my father called my uncle and says, "Hey, we're coming
10:51 down." And my uncle said, "You have no right anymore to enter this
10:56 house. you have given the house over to us. It's now our house. It's no longer your house and I won't even let you step
11:03 in it or visit it. And I remember I was speaking about forgiveness at that point of time and I shared the story with you
11:09 guys and we were thinking we were working through my family and how can we forgive him.
11:15 I mean he took away he pretty much robbed my father of something. He robbed my family of something.
11:22 And since then we my family we have been working through it and and we found different ways on how to forgive us and
11:28 every one of us had had a different way of forgiving my uncle but we we all came to conclusion we were all able to forgive him. But recently my father did
11:36 one thing. He wrote my uncle a letter.
11:41 You see forgiveness was the beginning. It it began something.
11:47 It began the the journey of reconciliation
11:54 and then my father wrote a letter and in his letter he wrote this and I'm not really um paraphrasing I'm paraphrasing
12:01 I'm just saying kind of things he said he said you know let let us not make things and possessions the thing about
12:07 our relationship you can have the house completely
12:13 and that not just physically but morally ethically in my heart have it.
12:20 Let's not make these things the problem between our relationship
12:25 much rather let let let's let's use this end stage of our life so we can become
12:31 closer as brothers again. You see my father was willing to
12:37 renunciate to to give away something was which was inherently his
12:43 by right it was his. He had every right to have that possession but he was willing to give it up
12:51 to be reconciled with his brother and the amazing thing happens when we have the mind of Christ.
12:59 Ever since that my father has been had conversations with his brother after his brother my uncle read the letter he
13:06 called. They had conversations. They they share each other's sicknesses,
13:13 comparing hospital visits, comparing pictures of their
13:19 grandchildren, sharing pictures of their grandchildren. You see, when we are willing to get rid
13:26 of things that we have the rights for, we're willing to let loose and let go,
13:33 we too are going to be about the business of reconciliation.
13:39 because somebody was willing to give up what it was inherently his. Now two
13:45 brothers are coming back together.
13:50 But Jesus did not just do that. No, he did not just renunciate his title. He did not just lose his position and
13:57 status. No, he also became man.
14:04 What does that mean? Well, first you say, "What kind of man?" He didn't become an aristocrat.
14:10 He didn't come in as a king. No, he came here as a servant. It says he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant
14:17 being born in the likeness of men. He took the form of a servant. In in Mark
14:26 10:45, Jesus says, "I didn't come here to be served, but I came here to serve.
14:35 How can we serve people? Who had God put in our life that we can
14:41 serve to connect that person with Christ?
14:48 But I want to focus a bit more on what it means that he became man.
14:54 You see, we must understand when he became man, he did not lose any of his deity.
15:01 He did not give up his his godness. He was still fully God.
15:09 Completely God. He just took on humanity.
15:16 And he took on humanity completely. He gave himself completely at the same
15:23 time. He was 100% God, 100% man. And what I mean by this is that in he became
15:29 God in in a man in various ways. He became man completely in body.
15:38 He had a human body. He was not an alien walking around
15:44 a different kind of species. No, he was fully man. And we see that
15:51 throughout scripture. He says this, the word became flesh. See, he was born.
15:58 He grew. It says in Luke that he he grew in wisdom and stature. He he grew taller.
16:04 He grew tired. He got thirsty.
16:10 He got hungry. He became physically weak.
16:16 He died. And he had a real human body after his resurrection.
16:23 He had a real human body. He was 100%
16:30 human. But not only that, he also had human
16:36 emotions. He had a human heart. He felt human feelings.
16:44 It says here when Jesus heard the centurion's words of faith, he marveled.
16:50 It says in Matthew 26 that his soul is very sorrowful even to death.
16:57 In John 11:33-35 it says Jesus is deeply
17:02 moved in his spirit and greatly troubled and even weeps. In John 12:27, now is my
17:08 soul troubled. In John 13:21, he's troubled in spirit.
17:14 And the author of Hebrews writes that Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears.
17:23 He became human in emotion. He became human in heart.
17:32 But not only that, he became human in mind. Now this gets a bit more complex and I'm
17:39 not going to say that I'm be able to explain all of this. I will claim to Deuteronomy 29:29 that not all things we
17:46 will know. Some things are we will know later on. But this is here Jesus increased in
17:51 wisdom. He had a human mind. He increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and
17:58 man. And here he had a limited mind to a certain extent as well concerning that
18:05 day of that hour. No one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor a son, but only the father.
18:13 So something about him was was human, was finite. He had a limitation. Yet he
18:19 also had a divine mind which he knew everything at the same time as well. In John, we read that John asked him, you
18:25 know, he asked John, do you love me? Do you love me? And John replied says, you know everything. You know I love you. You know everything.
18:32 So he knew everything in his divine mind but he was limited in his human mind. And and how these perplexities work
18:38 together I have no clue. But this is not my my point to explain.
18:43 My point is just to say that he was fully man in mind as well.
18:54 Last thing he became human in will.
19:00 I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent
19:07 me. So in one way yes he is God and has the same will as God divine will but at
19:12 the same time he had a human will and he came just to do the God will and not the human will and Jesus prayed to the
19:18 father not as I will but as you will. He
19:23 understands the conflict of of two different wills fighting against each other.
19:31 He had both a divine will and a human
19:36 will. Now why is it so important that he gave himself completely to mankind?
19:46 Well, he he took on a human body
19:51 to save and heal our human bodies. He took on a human mind to save and heal
19:58 our human minds. He He took on human emotions to save and heal our hearts.
20:05 And he took on a human will to save and heal our wandering, straying
20:12 wills. He became man in full so that he might
20:18 save us in full. He saved us completely. He became 100%
20:27 man. And here's the amazing thing. He became man eternally.
20:36 What I mean by this right now, sitting on the right hand of heaven
20:42 of God, he still is man.
20:48 You see, his his incarnation, his his stint of humanity was not just a a 33-year stint.
20:55 When he became man, he became man forever. And how do we know this? Well, when he
21:02 rose again, he had a human body,
21:08 right? He he walked about and he ate fish. He was recognizable.
21:15 And then when he ascended, what did the voices say? Just as he ascended, in the
21:21 same way he will come down again. In the visions, we we went through
21:27 Daniel. In the vision of Daniel and in the vision of John as well in Revelation, we say that it's like somebody of the son of man will come
21:34 down. You see, he didn't just give us a a 33ear stint. No, he gave himself
21:41 completely to us, eternally to us. I mean, what mindblowing thing is that?
21:50 That's why he can be our high priest.
21:55 That's why he can be our advocate.
22:00 You see, Jesus is not just in his mission and in his purpose about the
22:06 reconciliation between God and man. He is in his very nature the reconciliation
22:11 between God and man. And that gives us hope because it means
22:18 that God has fully invested himself completely for eternally into mankind.
22:28 Nothing now can separate us from the love of God. Nothing, heaven, no hell, no angels, no demons, nothing created,
22:36 nothing can separate us from the love of God. He is eternally invested in us. It
22:42 means one thing that the plan for humanity is stupifyingly glorious.
22:52 that God would be man eternally.
23:01 And this man became servant
23:07 and this man died for us. This God man
23:16 was willing to humble himself onto crucifixion.
23:24 While we were yet sinners, while we are trying to attain glory from
23:31 from all other places, while we acquire idols, money, wealth,
23:37 position, status, while we're doing all these things, he was willing to die for
23:44 us. And then on that cross he said, "Oh Lord, Lord, why have you forsaken me?"
23:56 God did not give him love. No, God gave him wrath.
24:05 God did not give him approval. No, God forsook him.
24:12 And he did that so that when we now come to God and look for love
24:20 and look for approval, look for praise, look for acceptance. We receive it
24:29 because of what Christ did on the cross. He died the death we should have died.
24:42 And he did that while we were yet sinners.
24:48 The text continues. The text says, "Because of what Jesus
24:55 did." But before we go there, we must say one thing. We always thought that the road
25:02 to glory was success. And Jesus shows us a different bridge. He shows that the
25:10 road to glory. The bridge to glory is grace.
25:17 Unmmerited favor lavished out upon us.
25:24 And then the story continues. It says because of what he did,
25:32 God exalted him and gave him the name above every name.
25:43 He raised him up into even greater glory
25:48 than he ever had. Now that name above every name is not just the name Jesus. No, Jesus is his
25:54 incarnate name. The name above every name is Lord
26:00 being above all things. Now this is not a title he never had but it's a title he was willing to give up
26:08 and the first time achieved it back as the messianic Lord.
26:14 He's Christ Jesus Christ Lord.
26:22 And that tells us something about how this world works. He gives us insight on
26:28 reality. You want to be rich
26:33 and give away your money. You want to lead,
26:40 serve. Want to be happy? Stop focusing on your
26:45 own happiness and and make your life about serving others and making other people happy.
26:53 We live in an upside down kingdom. Everything is upside down. Jesus says to be his disciple, we must what? Deny
26:60 ourselves, pick up our cross
27:07 and follow him.
27:12 So my question for us here today is what position,
27:18 what status, what possession, what wealth are we
27:24 willing to give up to connect somebody to Christ?
27:33 Who are we willing to serve? Where are we willing to humble
27:40 ourselves, give ourselves completely to mind, body, will, emotionally?
27:49 To whom are we willing to give ourselves to and serve them so we can connect them to Christ?
27:57 Who are we willing to suffer for?
28:04 Jesus says there's no greater love than this than to lay down your life for another.
28:11 Who are we willing to suffer for to connect them to Christ?
28:19 David Platt in his book Radical said, "We are settling for a Christianity that
28:25 revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity
28:31 is actually about abandoning ourselves.
28:37 It's about emptying ourselves." And as we empty ourselves
28:43 and as we look at what Jesus has done, that fills us.
28:52 It fills us completely. It fills us eternally
28:59 and makes us ready to be able to empty ourselves.
29:06 Now we started with reading scripture and I would like to end today with reading scripture.
29:15 And as we together reflect and think about what Christ has
29:21 done, that he was God
29:26 and was willing to give up possession status and then humbled himself to serve and to
29:34 die. Let's have that in mind. What he was
29:40 willing to do for us. When I read this passage and I'm reading
29:47 verses chapter 2, same chapter verses 1
29:52 to five. So if there's any encouragement in
29:58 Christ, any encouragement, anything that he has done, if there's any
30:04 encouragement in that, any comfort from love,
30:12 any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy complete my
30:20 joy by becoming of the same mind, having The same love being in full accord of
30:29 one mind. Church,
30:34 do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others
30:40 more significant than yourself.
30:46 Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of
30:51 others. Have this mind among yourself
30:57 which is yours in Christ Jesus and it is yours
31:05 eternally forever. Let us pray.
31:14 for the Lord. What amazing thing
31:21 that you were God and did not count it as as something to be grasped. No, but
31:26 you gave it up for us. You gave up your status for us
31:32 to reconcile with us, to serve us, and to die for us, to to take wrath for us,
31:42 oh Lord. And we are here trying to acquire things for ourselves all the
31:48 time just to get glory in the wrong places.
31:55 But your word says that we are like grass and our glory like the flower of
32:01 grass and the grass will wither and the flower will fall. But your word will last forever
32:08 and your son will last forever and your glory will last forever.
32:15 So, Father, I just pray that we have as a church the mind of Christ
32:22 that we are willing to give up things for people
32:27 to serve others and to suffer for them to connect them to you.
32:36 Father, help fill us so that we can empty ourselves for your
32:42 mission. Amen.
