John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.

Col. 1: 15-20
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

You can see from this reading that ALL THREE passages are philosophical and this church could become like a philosophy 101 class I took in university. Relax! I'm not going to subject you to that! Instead, we'll look at the at the message for us.

Philippians 2: 6-11 has been called a first century hymn by some scholars because of the poetic way its written and it seems to be a creed. If it was a hymn, Paul borrowed the lyrics to encourage the Philippian church to settle disagreements and to have a new outlook - that of love and service for each other with Jesus as the ultimate example to follow. Nicky Gumbel teaches a video series on Philippians named "A Life worth living". He calls this whole chapter the call for a new attitude, and so it is.

It is a pretty zealous call to worship, as well as a command to follow Jesus' example. In either case I believe that I should talk about both example and worship today, for they are both relevant to us.

Christ as example
The "Command" in this passage is that we are to have an attitude like that of Christ Jesus. This we can understand. But why does he say Jesus' name backwards here? Some people have been puzzled about this, until I found a reference that says that Christ Jesus was his name before he was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit. The other order, that of Jesus Christ - shows his ministry on earth.

Paul includes this command before the hymn section here. His desire is for us to live in harmony with humble hearts, desiring to serve and not be served. This calls for an attitude of humility towards others. What is humility? One pastor believes that the Word humility in the original Greek means to "think-lowly," and this includes not taking advantage of others. How has this been illustrated in our own time?

Mother Theresa was a powerful example of humility and of thinking of others as more important than himself. Shortly before her death, she was questioned by a reporter who accused her of being publicity hunting. He asked her "why else are you doing this interview?" She replied with a radiant smile and said, "I'm doing it to help YOU, because you asked, and its your job."

There is also a good book from the early part of the 20th century that shows the struggle of Christians in the midst of difficult situations. Charles Sheldon wrote In His Steps as a personal response of his Christian community. The basic question that came from the book was: "WHAT WOULD JESUS DO IN THIS SITUATION?" It's a good question, and it later spawned a youth movement in the church that AGAIN asks what would Jesus do. That's what the WWJD bracelets represent that you may have seen in Christian bookstores. So in following Jesus, what would he do if he were us? I think he'd have us follow his example. Yet, because Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, he is also present to us in the Holy Spirit. He does not leave us without help.

Philip Yancey, a popular Christian writer says that there are basically two types of people - stars and servants. Stars would be anyone who is famous in the areas of the arts, sports, TV personalities, movie stars and the like. Servants were the relief workers in troubled spots, counsellors, missionaries, and people who relieve others' suffering. Yancey found that the stars were generally miserable and self-doubting, and the servants were generally happier. Despite the fact that they had low pay, long hours and less recognition, "somewhere in the process of losing their lives, they found them." This is the right attitude, that of love, and humility. It's also what is called for when Jesus says in the Beatitudes [Matt. 3:5] that blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I looked up what poor in spirit meant in this example and it came up as BEGGING, CROUCHING and COMPLETE MEDIANCY... That's a pretty strong illustration of humility.

Another illustration of a star that became miserable is that of Mick Jagger. He and the Rolling Stones released the song "I can't get no satisfaction" in the 1960's - a song that was recently voted as the second best song ever written, the first was the Beatles' In My Life. This famous song actually become a self-fulfilling prophecy in his case. I read recently an article that interviewed Jerry Hall, who is Jagger's former wife. She basically said that Mick has always been searching for this satisfaction, and he STILL IS! He's searched so much that its ruined two marriages, and has given him casual sexual contact with many women, including a Brazilian model that is suing him for child care expenses. The thing is, because he was searching in all the wrong places for that satisfaction, he lost what he was seeking. Thus as Rick Warren says, "seek your OWN good and you'll never find satisfaction."

This humility is what one of my professors, Victor Shepherd, calls cheerful self-forgetfulness. It ISN'T self-contempt. It ISN'T putting yourself down. Yet it isn't putting on an outward show of what looks like humility either. Can you achieve this kind of humility on your own? I don't think so. Self effort only makes you proud inside for what you do. We need a role model. God knew we needed A PERSON to pattern ourselves after. It's a little hard to model yourself after a burning bush or a pillar of cloud, isn't it? And if that role model was ALSO God, who can instill in you his goodness, wouldn't you take him up on it? Its far better to be given the humility and attitude OF Christ BY Christ.

Christ as Lord: an invitation to worship
We are called to have the humble attitude of Jesus. What does ATTITUDE really mean? It involves a mindset not emotions. It involves a focus on a similar goal - that of being like Christ. It causes us as the hymn writer says, to "Turn your eyes upon Jesus." This "attitude check" involves examining what you focus on, what you admire, what you worship. An attitude, says Frank Thielman, is abstract [...] until it is expressed in some concrete way."

Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 to set our minds on things above. He says: whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--THINK about such things. We are encouraged as Christians to follow the example of Christ. We are also encouraged to worship him. The paradox is we become like that which we worship and admire.

Let me tell you a story about that:
A young boy used to gaze at a granite cliff for hours and hours. He was fascinated by its strength, and its old features that seemed to defy the newness of the town he lived in. After the boy grew up, he still spent his spare time admiring the stone face in between his studies. During this time, his own facial features took on the resoluteness of that granite. His neighbours began to remark that this determined middle aged man actually LOOKED like the stone cliff! Now if one could become like a stone which is of no help in life, how much better it is to be like Jesus!

Let's consider WHO JESUS IS. The hymn starts with the word 'Who', which in Greek is the normal way to start a creed. But what does it say after that? JESUS IS GOD - that he is BEING or existing IN the VERY NATURE GOD. He is separate in personality from the Father but is of the same essence. The original Greek says that Jesus is in the FORM of God which is similar to the Greek philosopher Plato's understanding of 'form'.

I won't go into what this means, since not all of you would have a philosophical bent. Instead, the translators of the NIV that we're using this morning interpreted form of God as being in very nature God to try to make it more understandable to us. Why did they do this other than to avoid turning our Bible study into philosophy? According to Tony Wang, the reason why they translated it that way is because they were afraid people might say, "see, the Bible itself says that he was only in the form of God. He wasn't really God himself." In fact, that's what most of the cults believe, that Jesus was a prophet, or some other spiritual being, but not really God. Even Bill Phipps believes that Jesus is only a representation of God. How could you be in the form of God and not be God? Make no mistake, when Paul says he was in the form of God, it can mean nothing less than that he is God. So, the NIV captures the true essence of the meaning that Jesus was in very nature God.

Jesus has equality with the Father
This isn't the only place in the New Testament that states this fact. John Wesley found that it occurs at least five or six times in the New Testament. In all these places it expresses not a bare resemblance, but a real and proper equality.

Jesus was secure in who he is - he did not have to cling to his status.
He did not think of his status as something to be clung to or grasped. The Greek says the word harpagmos, which means "to snatch, or to clutch." Some translations call this word robbery, and that Jesus did not try to achieve his status by having a power struggle with the Father, instead his status was his by right and nature. He was not going to lose it. He was secure in it so he could let it go.

Matthew Henry ties this security in who Jesus was - with the fact that he is entitled to worship. He says that Jesus had not thought it a robbery to be equal with God, and to receive divine worship from men and women. Jesus understood this security in who he was - he could be given worship without instilling pride, and in fact he became even more humble.

Jesus is humble
- He set aside his glory, he became a human, a servant and a suffering casualty in a corrupt world. And then he died a horrible death. He had the willingness to give .... and step 'down a very long ladder'. Victor Shepherd calls this humbling process an "emptying of self-preoccupation." Yet Jesus went even further than that - since he wasn't self-occupied like we often are. Beet says that "the entire action of Christ on earth is an outflow in human form of his divine nature."

Adam Clarke, said of Jesus' humbling that he laid himself as low as possible: In emptying himself-he laid aside the brilliance of his glory. He became human. He became not only a servant, but the servant of all. He who is eternal and sinless followed the Father's plan to die. Not only did he die, but it was the lowest and most shameful kind of death, the capital punishment of the meanest of slaves, non-Citizens and "the worst of felons. Sin must have been horrible in the sight of God, when it required such abasement in Jesus Christ to make an atonement for it, and undo its influence!" [paraphrase]

His emptying of himself was like a falling star
- In a Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown and Linus are standing next to each other, staring at a star-filled sky. "Would you like to see a falling star?" Charlie Brown asks Linus. "Sure..." Linus responds. "Then again I don't know," he adds, after some thought. "I'd hate to have it fall just on my account." Yet a 'star' so to speak DID fall on our account. One who was glorious emptied himself by setting aside all his privileges of being God... and he was obedient to God the Father by becoming first a human (like it says in the Christmas story), a servant (like when he washed the disciples' feet) and a once for all sacrifice (like in the Good Friday story). But the story doesn't end there.

Jesus became human, set aside his privileges, but continued to be God. He in effect as Graham Kendrick writes in a song we just sang [The Servant King] - that Jesus veiled his glory. "Imagine a king wishing to travel incognito, divesting himself of all of his royal apparel, food, etc. He would still be a king, but he would have emptied himself of his glory. A film example of this is the Queen in the latest Star Wars movie: "The Phantom Menace." She decided to take on the role of a servant to find out what was going on the world their space ship crashed on. She continued to be the queen, even though she was approachable as a pretend servant. Jesus continued to be a king, like her, but was a real servant. He never used his divinity for his own benefit.

When he became human, he truly became one of us. When the great railway engineer George Stephenson died, his long funeral procession contained a body of plain workmen, who wore a banner inscribed with the words, "he was one of us," for he had risen from their ranks. Truly, Jesus is one of us, for he came down to join our ranks.'

There was a popular song a few years ago by Joan Osborne. She, as a seeker, asked one question in the midst of a controversial song. She wrote: " If God had a name, what would it be? And would you call it to his face, if you were faced with him, in all his glory? What would you ask if you had just one question... [...] What if God was one of us?" This song was unpopular with a lot of Christians, but it asks a legitimate question for one who doesn't know Jesus. She asks about the approachability of a good God and of the question of faith if one approaches him. She asks, what if God was one of us? Well, he was one of us in every way except sin.

He was fully human - this was not a disguise or just appearance of one. He was fully Jewish, subject to the laws and customs of this human ancestry. He was circumcised on the eighth day. He was subject to his parents, even when they did not understand him in the temple when he was twelve years old. He was baptized by John to fulfil ministry, not out of repentance of sins. He cared for everyone, including women, children, the sick and the dying. He was tempted. He was hungry and thirsty. He grew tired and took time apart to rest and pray. He accepted the limitation of not being all-knowing when he was on earth - but he still had great wisdom - by leaning on the Holy Spirit in prayer communication with the Father.

Jesus was called into service although he was a king: he was obedient
Jesus was called to be a servant, as was foretold in Isaiah's servant songs. The most famous of these is Isaiah 53. And he himself told his disciples that if you want to be great, you must be a servant. So it was the same with him.... When Jesus chose his call to come to earth, he divested himself of the approval of his position. He put on the apron of a servant to humanity - that's why he has the title of Son of Man.

I read a sermon illustration recently that said Jesus "donned the apron of the servant to God" when he took on the very nature of a servant. In John 13 he also takes off his regular clothes and puts on a big towel - which is another symbol of servanthood.

Some other scriptures that talk about Jesus as servant are:
Mark 10: 45 - "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many " and Luke 22:25: But I am among you as one who serves. Servant passages abound in the scriptures, thus pointing to whom Graham Kendrick calls The Servant King, Jesus.

Jesus was approachable - He was a man who spoke and ministered to many kinds of people. Spurgeon called him Christ of the People - that he was born in a common place - where hotel guests stabled their animals (kind of like a parking garage) where all might come to Him. He died with His arms extended as a pledge that he continued to receive all who came to Him. He never spoke of anyone as the common mob, the vulgar assembly, but he made Himself at home among them. He was dressed like a peasant, he mixed with the crowd, went to their weddings, attended their funerals, and was so much among them, that some called him a glutton and drinker, a friend of your regular Joe and sinners. In respects, Jesus was raised up from the midst of us - one of our own. "For this cause he is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters." He was our brother in living, our brother in death, and our brother in resurrection; for after His resurrection he said: "Go, tell others." [Spurgeon, Sage Digital Library- transliterated in common idiom]

Jesus was called to be a poor, common man.
Can you imagine a king so glorious could be so outwardly ordinary? Again, this was part of his humility and another step down for him. The song Our God Reigns and Isaiah 53: 2 mentions that Jesus had no form that we might notice - he was an ordinary looking man. Isaiah wrote that the Messiah [...] grew up like a small plant before the LORD, like a root growing in a dry land. He had no special beauty or form to make us notice him; there was nothing in his appearance to make us desire him. Wesley noted that Jesus was a common man, without any peculiar excellence or comeliness. Matthew Henry also said that Christ not only took upon him the likeness and form of a man, but of a peasant; not appearing in splendour. His whole life was a life of poverty and suffering.

Jesus didn't mind his poverty, for he was rich in wisdom, depended on the Father in prayer and on the Holy Spirit for power. Yet he was realistic. He said that "foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." (Matt. 8:20) He fortunately had friends who took care of his needs while he travelled, and he graciously accepted their hospitality.

Bill Phipps noted in an interview that the contrast between Jesus and the Magi was amazing. He said that there was such splendour of the three kings with gold and crowns and who come to see this new king, and where did they find him? They find him in a smelly little stable, a manger. This story tells that [normally] God is not found on the margins.

I believe Jesus was called to 'live on the margins.' He was born in a stable, was laid in a borrowed cradle. He lived in an insignificant village, in a small house, with a poor mother, and a humble trade. He had no home of his own, when he came to die, he was crucified with thieves. He was even laid in a borrowed tomb. He became a willing and obedient servant.

Jesus was called into suffering.
Jesus was called to suffer, which is also shown in this bit of Isaiah 53 as well: he was despised and rejected by all, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. [Isa. 53:3-5]

Yet his role as a suffering servant did not take him by surprise. He knew who he was and what he was called to do. It was difficult, but he still rode through an excited crowd in Jerusalem who didn't understand him, toward a temple that had been corrupted, past the courtyard where he would be accused, and the cross where he would be crucified. He knew that his life and death could make a difference - and so he endured the suffering for the higher purpose of God.

And then Jesus died a horrible death
- As foretold in Psalm 22:1 and 16-18, when David said, My God, my God why have you forsaken me? [...] A band of evil people has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones, people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing."

Some of you may have heard of Bruce Marchiano, the actor who played Jesus in the Gospel According to Matthew - the video in the Visual Bible series. After his experience playing Jesus, he wrote a book called In the Footsteps of Jesus. He was heavily impacted by the significance of the kind of death Jesus went through. Says Marchiano:

"I hung on the cross yesterday. I never began to understand what Jesus did for me until yesterday. And I still gained only a glimpse of the reality, the absolute subjection/submission to horror ... for me. Every believer should wear a crown of thorns and hang on a cross for ten seconds - they would never be the same. And I can't help but feel that every non-believer would accept Christ on the spot if he did the same.

I have felt so alone, so naked, so ugly, so emotionally bare - and I was just playacting, dipping my toe into the experience of the cross. What he did for us! He chose it!

Lying on that cross while people were huddling over me, being force-fed vinegar, seeing huge quantities of blood on my arm and on the ground. I looked at my arm and wept. Waiting for light to be hung, I wept. The Roman soldiers beat me and I wept. Sitting alone in my loincloth, I wept. And as the stories come in from the crew and onlookers, I'm discovering that many wept. What he did for us. ... Lives will never be the same. Mine will never be the same." Thus, Bruce truly caught a sense of just how awful it was. The cross was terrible.

The Jewish view of crucifixion was one of horror. Anyone who hung on a cross was considered cursed by God. And so he was on our account. Deut. 1: 22-23 says: If a man guilty of a capital offence is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. So this whole thing was a shock to the Jews. The Romans also thought crucifixion was horrible, although they weren't the first conquerors to practice it. It was practised in times of war by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Egyptians. Romans used crucifixion for slaves, foreigners and criminals who committed treason. Roman citizens were spared this form of execution, which is why Paul, a Roman citizen, was beheaded rather than crucified like Jesus. Cicero, a Roman writer, said that "to bind a Roman citizen is a crime, to flog him is an abomination, to slay him is an act of murder, and to crucify him is --- what? There is no fitting word that can possibly describe so horrible a deed." [From Fee's NICNT Philippians commentary. p. 217, Note 13]

Now Paul's letter was to written to Philippi, which was a Roman colony - They very well understood how humiliating and undignified it was for a person to die without being a Roman citizen. Eventually the Romans outlawed crucifixion sometime in the third century.

Dennis Ngien, one of my professors, was always quoting the refrain line of Charles Wesley's "And can it be" in almost every class. This hymn impacted him because he was amazed at the depth of Jesus' sacrifice, and wanted to exalt Jesus because of it. Finally on the last day of the course, the entire class sang it back to him. It is a powerful hymn. The third verse in particular impacted me: