The Humility and Glory of The Cross

Philippians chapter two. I'd like you to think about something this morning as we come to the end of this year and as you look forward to next year and that is are you in a position to receive the blessings of God in your life. In Jude chapter, in the first chapter, Jude, there's only one chapter and Jude, I think is verse 21, Jude admonishes those that he's writing to to keep themselves in the love of God. That's a strange command since all of us are inspired in the love of God. We are told that he has sovereignly set his love upon us. And yet Jude says by our decisions, the decisions of our lives and our attitude, we can position ourselves in such a way that we experience the love and grace of God in a very particular way.

How do you plan on living this next year? What is your attitude going to be like? How are you going to approach life? And is it in such a way that you are positioned before God that you stand before God in such a way with your attitude that you can receive his blessings in all their fullness as he really desires to bless you? Well, our model, our example, our exemplar is the Lord Jesus Christ. Two times in his life, God spoke from heaven and he said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, once at his baptism, once on the amount of transfiguration when God spoke out of heaven. And he basically declared that this is the one, this man Jesus is the one who lives in such a way as to be pleasing to the Father.

So he is our example of how we are to live in such a way to really enjoy and experience the great blessings and grace of God in our daily lives. In Philippians chapter two, we have one of the most wonderful passages in all of scripture. It's a in some ways a mystifying passage because it is so deep and yet it's given in the context of a simple exhortation about how we are to live our lives as a local church. Listen to these words beginning in verse five of Philippians two, have this attitude in yourselves that is among yourselves as a local congregation as the people of God, which was also in Christ Jesus who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obi the point of death even death on a cross.

Therefore also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. What I'd like to do this morning is to stretch your brain just a little bit. I want you to pay attention. In fact if you the insert that was in the bulletin that you picked up there's a little chart there. I just wanted to point out a parallel that you have in this passage that's quite helpful. And that is in verses six and seven and verse eight you have two parallel thoughts that run side by side. And basically what it tells us is that as God the son emptied himself and as man he humbled himself.

And notice you have these four parallels in both passage. First is mode of existence. Second what he did in that mode of existence. Third how he carried out what he did and then finally a clarification of that and amplification of it. Notice what he saw last week in verses six and seven that his mode of existence was that he existed in the form of God being equal with God. Not grasping it as an opportunity but rather being willing to give it up to empty himself. And notice what he did in this mode of existence is being equal with God. He emptied himself that is he poured himself out for us. And how he carried it out by taking the form of a bond servant. The form of a bond servant. The God of the universe becomes a bond servant.

And then he clarifies that by telling us being made in the likeness of men. Now notice the parallel in verse eight his mode of existence was being found in appearance as a man. And now we have the second stage that is described for us here. He came he became a man and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself. And notice how he carried this out by becoming obedient to the point of death. And then he gives this word of clarification which really drives at home death on a cross. I want you to notice something in that little chart compare the thing on the bottom right with the thing on the left top existing in the form of God and death on a cross. Those two things seem so remote from one another that it's almost impossible for us to understand that the God of the universe the one who existed in the form of God experienced death on a cross.

Let's look a little more closely to this at this. Notice first of all his mode of existence it says that in a he was an appearance he was found in appearance as a man. To be an appearance as a man explains to us what he meant when he said he came in the likeness of men. This word does not have to do with the essential quality of something that was the word form that we saw earlier in the passage that he existed in the form of God. That is he had the essential quality of being equal with God. He is eternally God. God the sun has been God from all eternity. But this word appears a man deals with externals that that which makes something recognizable. He was recognizable as a man being made in the likeness of men defines the way that he appeared.

He appeared among us as a man. We could clearly recognize him if we had been in there we would have seen him being a real man like you and I. In fact people saw him and they were not impressed by him in any way. He looked like every other man. He was recognizable as a human being. In fact he was accused of being an illegitimate child. But together these two phrases accent the reality of his humanity that he came in the likeness. He was made in the likeness of men and he was found in appearance as a man. He was a real human being. Two errors have haunted the church since early on in church history that the church has always stood against and that is denying the deity of Christ and denying the humanity of Christ.

There are those who try to deny his deity and say he was just a man upon whom God came for a period of time and there are those who say he wasn't really a man. He was God and he worked among us but he wasn't really a man like you and I. And yet the Bible teaches that he became a real human being like you and me. He could feel pain. He could feel hunger. He could become so famished for example in John chapter four that he was unable to go on. He had to sit and rest out of the side of it by a well while his disciples went to get him food because he was so exhausted and so hungry. And notice the action he takes while in this in this mode of existence of being a man like you and I it says he humbled himself.

He humbled himself. The word humble that's translated humble himself literally means I love this it means he took the lowest place. Remember when Jesus said foxes have holes birds have nests but the Son of Man doesn't have a place to lay his head. Jesus became poor Paul tells us in second Corinthians chapter eight. He who was rich became poor that we through his poverty might become rich. He humbled himself. You know sometimes we have been experiencing such abundance over these last few years that we forget what it's like not to have abundance. In fact that's one of the scariest things when you hear about if the economy is going to slow down you begin to wonder if you can take it. If you can actually be happy and not have so many things and have such great abundance.

Imagine Jesus Christ God the Son coming from the throne of glory and coming into this world in a poor little country who was under the heel of Rome didn't even have freedom and was not born in a homeless shelter but in an animal shelter to a young maiden who was probably 16 17 years old who was accused of being immoral and having a baby that was illegitimate. He came into those kinds of circumstances. He became poor that we might become rich but it's more than that it's not just his poverty it isn't that Jesus came into very humble circumstances it is the fact that he had a mindset the mindset of a servant. In fact Jesus is our example that we are to see ourselves as servants of one another for that's what he was this is this is the one who was highly exalted this is what humility really is in fact humility it really demonstrates what true humanity is you see a person isn't really human to the fullest extent until they experience humanity humility is the opposite of selfishness and empty conceit that he mentions earlier in this text now compare Jesus with those two things with selfishness it says he poured himself out by becoming a servant in other words instead of living according to selfishness seeking his own selfish ends he was willing to pour himself completely out and take the form of a servant what about vain conceit doing things will be highly regarded by others instead of vain conceit he humbled himself unto death on a cross where he was stripped absolutely naked beaten where Isaiah says that you could hardly tell that he was a man and hung on a cross exalted lifted up on a cross so that that entire crowd could gaze upon him the son of God he humbled himself unto death on a cross see humility has to do with a proper estimation of yourself it's the stance of a creature before the creator God became a human being so he could show us how a human being is supposed to relate to God he demonstrated true humility he demonstrated to us what it is like to live in utter and total dependence and trust in the living God God created as it says in his own image that is to display the glory of God among his creatures on the earth were the only ones who were creature of God not the angels not animals man that is male and female we were created in the image of God to display and reflect the glory of who God truly is and the only way we can do that is when we are humble in other words when we recognize who God really is and who we really are we are the only ones who can demonstrate who can reflect in this special kind of way who God truly is true humility is not self-focus true humility is not the person is always ringing their hands and and is you know always backward in silent and and doesn't want to be noticed because they don't want to be laughed at that that's not what humility is humility is the person regardless of the kind of personality they have whether they're an outgoing talker or whether they're a quiet quiet retiring type of personality it is a person who doesn't merely look out for their own personal interests but also for the interests of others that's what a humble person is it's a person who has positioned himself before God they see God for who he really is and they see other people for who they are in the presence of God let me ask you something are you gonna be a servant in the year 2001 you see that is man in his glory that's woman in her glory that's what makes us glorious when we serve when we see ourselves and understand ourselves to be servants in the same way that Jesus Christ was a servant and this perspective this understanding of what man really is comes from Jesus he is the one who's shown us what it means to be truly human humility explains both his own self understanding the way he understood himself the way he lived his life the responses he gave to people the teaching that he gave it is humility it is this understanding of what humility really is it also explains his opposition to the Pharisees the Pharisees were religious people who were very meticulous in their lives they made sure they did everything that people thought a religious person was supposed to do but they had no humility they were arrogant they were proud they didn't see their true relationship with the God the one and only true and living God and so Jesus and in Jesus we see something that is essential about the character of God and those created in his image in Matthew chapter 11 in fact why don't you look there for a second a wonderful passage in Matthew 11 Jesus addresses a group of people who knew what it was like to attempt to be as religious as the Pharisees and always fail and who had a heavy load put upon them well what they needed to do and be in order to be accepted by God you know that's a great way to control people is if you can convince them to convince them that they have to follow your instructions in order to be acceptable to God and that's what the Pharisees had done and so Jesus speaks to these people who are carrying this heavy load and he says in verse 28 come to me all who are weary and he and I will give you rest and the weary and heavy laden he's talking about here is the weariness of religious service in order to gain God's acceptance maybe your Christian life gets like that I'm sure it does from time to time where the Christian life you either totally give up on it or it's so hard and it's so difficult and it's so overbearing that you can hardly stand to try to live the Christian life well that's because we are all at heart until God sets us free from it we all have this tendency to be Pharisees at heart and so he says to them come to me all of you who are weary spiritually weary and heavy laden and I'll give you rest isn't that amazing not let me sign you up for a program and give you 52 things to do so you can be acceptable by the Father but I'll give you rest take my yoke upon you and that an unusual thing take my yoke upon you in other words get in the yoke with me to do service for God and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you shall find rest for yourselves that is an amazing truth that when you yoke up with Jesus Christ to serve the living God you will find rest you will come to rest the work of Christ for my yoke is easy and my load is light this invitation to the heavily laden to come and learn of him is right in the context where the son alone knows the Father and he is revealed as being gentle and humble now think about this for a second the only man who's ever lived on this earth who truly knew God as God can be known by a human being the only one we might say the Apostle Paul surely knew God and surely he did he had face-to-face relationship with Jesus Christ but he was a man and he describes his struggle in Roman 7th the struggle that he had like you and I have the Jesus Christ knew the Father he knew him truly he knew him as he truly is and what was he like what was the only man like whoever knew God as God truly is he was gentle and he was humble in heart isn't that amazing and he says he will reveal this to babes not to the wise and learn and not to those who think they're very just in spiritual but to babes people who come to simply trust in him they'll come to know what it's like to really know God and they'll have the same kind of mindset they'll see themselves as servants a lot of people think that when you get mature in in the Christian life that you that they think maturity the sign of maturity is they don't really care about anything anymore they don't struggle with anything anymore that's not maturity maturity spiritual maturity is when you come to have a gentle and humble spirit and you see yourself as a servant of Christ and a servant of his people and you delight to follow in the steps of Jesus and notice how he carried this out how did this his humbling find expression how did the fact that he humbled himself express with how was it expressed in his life it says by becoming obedient to death obedient to death what an expression Christ death he says is an act of obedience in Romans chapter 5 you have this great theological description there comparison between the first and second atom between Christ and Adam and it says there that Adam's one act of disobedience his eating of the fruit his disobeying God plunges the entire race in the condemnation but he says one Christ one act of obedience brings justification to everyone who believes on him and that act of obedience he's speaking about in that context was his act of submitting to the father to the point of death on a cross that was his act of obedience now what that expresses isn't a total expression and manifestation of total trust in the father remember the account of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and when he struggles over the fact that he's going to be made sin for us and he cries out to the father in fact the description is so picturesque in the book of Hebrews it says he cried out like a wild animal in such pain and agony thinking about going to the cross and becoming sin and separated from the father and he says to the father there's any way that this cup can pass from me but then he immediately says but not my will your will be done and going to the cross was an act of obedience to the father he wasn't trapped he could have called 10,000 angels he could have he could have manifested his great power as God and yet he's submitted to the will of the father and this is what Paul is calling these Philippians to do to humble themselves as an obedience to the father's calling their lives the father's put a call on your life God's put a call on your life those of you who who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ he's called you to be humble servants in the same manner he was a humble servant in this language that we have here in this passage fully reflects Paul's theological perspective his way of looking at who God really is and who Christ is and who we are before God now compare this with the the mindset the perspective of those who crucified the Lord of glory in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 they saw the death of Jesus Christ as weakness and foolishness it was a scandal in their eyes they were ignorant of God's mystery they had no clue while they were doing it he says in Paul says if they would understood what they were doing if they would have understood what God was up to they would not have crucified the Lord of glory but God chose to redeem this fallen race he chose to redeem you and me through the weakness and scandal of the cross that's an amazing thing that God would choose to redeem us to set us free through this great manifestation of weakness you know when you have problems in life when someone opposes you or starts causing you trouble maybe outrightly attacks you our normal response is to attack back isn't it if they show a little muscle a little power a little authority a little influence manipulation what we try to do is to show more that's how we overcome opposition that's the natural way for us and yet God delivered us through weakness and through scandal in the eyes of men Paul sees the act of Christ on the cross not as weakness and this but as an act of obedience to the divine will of God all of his enemies saw him as being overcome by them they had it last eliminated Jesus from their presence he was the troublemaker they wanted to get rid of and they saw him being crucified on the cross as an act as a culmination of his weakness in their strength Paul says it was a manifestation of obedience in the Sun in fact notice this expression in your context obedience unto death a little word on two means as far as to this degree to this extent obedience to the point of death that's the degree that obedience took him you ever wonder when you're in the midst of trials you miss the trouble things are going badly and you keep waiting for God to deliver you and to open a door to get you out of this you wonder you know how far can this go how long can this go on until God delivers Jesus was obedient to the point of death because he is one of those who chose the path that led death the path of obedience first Thessalonians Paul says to the Thessalonikans people just like you Christians like you who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ he says you followed our example you we became you became imitators of us because you received the word of the gospel and you obeyed in the face of opposition and persecution and difficulty you saw obedience to the gospel obedience to Jesus Christ is more important than your comfort more important than your popularity more important than you being accepted by those around you you were willing to suffer persecution now this is God's wisdom in fact Paul says in his precise words in 1 Corinthians 2 7 this fact that God delivers through weakness and suffering and the cross he says this is God's wisdom decreed before the ages for our glory and where it's ultimately the fact that God delivered you in this manner is going to be glorious as we live in his presence in eternity future look at it in chapter 1 look at the wisdom of God and how it it surely is as Paul says the it is foolishness to man the foolishness of God in the eyes of man is the mighty power of God in Ephesians chapter 1 Paul is giving this expression of blessing for God's great work in Christ Jesus and he says in in verse 3 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly in Christ just as he chose us in him in other words here's the great example of his blessing us with every spiritual blessing he begins at the very beginning just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world in other words the beginning of this great demonstration of God's blessing you in every way in Christ is that he chose you before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blame us before him in love he predestined us to adoption his sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved in him we dimsion through his blood every time you see blood when it refers to Christ you have to just in your mind say through his violent death under the judgment of God the blood of Christ isn't some nice little word some little theological word that we use and we never think of that gory picture of Jesus dying violently on the cross that's what it refers to we have redemption through his violent death on the cross the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace and then notice in verse 11 also we have obtained in inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the council as well see when Jesus went to the cross and his enemies thought finally they had taken advantage of him finally that overcome him what they didn't know this was a fulfillment of the plan of the living God that was laid down before the foundation of the world that God delights in delivering us in the way that he has delivered us in what looks like weakness to men and is the greatest display of power that men will ever ever know and then he clarifies this is word of clarification he doesn't just say obedience unto death but then he has this modifier death the death of a cross that's the climax of the whole section we have this this description of Jesus being in the form of God who didn't think it was robbery not something to grasp and and take hold of as an opportunity for his own ends but rather he emptied himself he became a bond servant so God becomes a bond slave the bond slave becomes a man the man becomes a substitute and finally according to 2nd Corinthians 5 he becomes sin he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him you know the next time that God puts it in your path as a servant of Christ as you're walking with him and and he's leading you and he puts before you an assignment as a servant that really cost you I mean really cost you maybe cost you financially maybe cost you physically maybe cost you in other ways really takes a toll on you remember that what God is doing is he's allowing you to experience what it'd be truly human and truly related to the living God be a servant of God and for it to be costly to you when he says it was unto death death of the cross he is saying something that penetrated the hearts of the first century readers of this letter in fact if you notice the bookends the striking feature of this whole whole passage of scripture is the bookends are this in the form of God across it begins with the fact that he was in his glory and ends with the fact that he was on a cross that's the sharpest contrast you could ever imagine God and the cross God on a cross the cross was a symbol of judgment of condemnation of a curse and here we have the holy righteous judge of the universe hanging on a cross amazing this is the heart of Paul's theology as you read the New Testament this is at the very heart of the gospel both in Paul's understanding of and what God has done and is doing in a fallen world it is the cross of Jesus Christ that is at the center of Paul's understanding of who God is and here is what the one who is equal with God has where he has most fully revealed the truth about God you want to know the truth about God look at the cross the cross of Jesus Christ tells you the deepest truth about God you will ever understand it reveals the truth about the heart of God there are people walking these streets today who've never have no knowledge of Jesus Christ who believe there is a God and they believe that this God is powerful they might even believe he's the creator they might believe that in some sense they're going to be held accountable to him but they don't know the deep deep truth about this God that's revealed on the cross that this God is this kind of a person who would pour himself out for us this self sacrifice God reveals himself God reveals his power his mighty power to save in this what looks like weakness he reveals his mighty wisdom his glorious wisdom on how to deal with a sin problem you know one of the most mysterious truths that Christian theologians try to understand is is the existence of evil why did God allow evil to enter into his creation and you will never find a satisfying answer to that until you until we enter in the glory you'll never find a satisfying answer to that but there's a greater mystery that's unveiled to us and that mystery is that on the cross God unveils his heart this cruel humiliating death on a cross for the sake of those that he loves reveals the heart of God Cicero wrote one time to bind a Roman citizen as a crime to flog him that is to beat him in public is an abomination to slay him as almost an act of murder to crucify him is what he says there is no fitting word that can possibly describe so horrible a deed in other words it wasn't just death it was humiliation it was a scandal for someone to survive in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 it says that Jesus Christ endured the cross scorning the shame to be crucified on a cross I want you to just imagine it doesn't have the same impact on us today as it did in the first century it doesn't naturally have that kind of impact but imagine what it would be like if you were a 33 year old man in your prime in life and you were beaten beyond recognition and then you were hoisted on a cross stripped naked beaten with a crown of thorns on your head the shame of it alone is overwhelming and yet God chose to display his mighty power and his glorious wisdom at this moment like no other time in all of history in Hebrews chapter 9 it says this was the high point of all the ages you can't understand the flow of history if you don't understand the cross of Jesus Christ everything else makes sense apart from the cross of Jesus Christ that is at the heart this is the divine weakness death at the hands of his creatures his enemies think about this God being crucified by his enemies God being beaten beyond recognition and hoisted on a cross by his enemies those who stood against him these insurrectionists this is the divine scandal the cross was reserved for slaves and for insurrectionist you couldn't be crucified if you were a citizen of Rome if you had any status whatsoever they couldn't crucify you they could put you to death but they couldn't crucify you you could not crucify someone in the United States you they could get the death penalty but they would never stoop to this kind of execution God chose to come into the world at a time in history and under a system in which when he died he would die on a cross as a curse in the eyes of in the eyes of God that's the divine scandal God's contradiction to human wisdom and power the foolishness of God and the weakness of God as Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 think of that the one that we say we worship as Lord of all including Caesar Caesar had to worship this God he was Lord of Caesar as well and yet he was crucified as a state criminal at the hands of one of Caesar's henchmen not even Caesar himself was involved in it that the Almighty should appear in human dress and that he should do so in this way as the Messiah who died by crucifixion I remember reading about an African king who gave his his puzzlement or his response when the gospel first came to his people and he listened very carefully and he said you mean to tell me what you're telling me is your religion is based upon the upon the worship of a man who was executed as a criminal is this what you're saying to me yes that's what we're saying to the world that we worship was crucified executed as a criminal crucifixion was a form of execution that was the most horrible in all of the history of mankind this was considered to be the most horrible kind of execution by any state government now there are other ways to die that are very horrible but this was an official execution by a government in fact notice in your notes there Cicero said the very word cross should be removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen but from his thoughts his eyes his ears you shouldn't even think about this this is immoral I mean you think in a culture like hours think about this for a second in your school in this school right here Liberty Union high school a teacher can use every foul word he wants to but if he talks about the cross of Jesus Christ he's in big trouble why is that on in our culture in in a culture that has been so affected by Christianity that it's acceptable to say almost in to make any immoral comment all your sitcoms are about immorality I mean that's that's what we laugh about in our culture but to have someone actually talk about the cross of Jesus Christ is a great offense you get sued for that you get fired for that and you know what the scandal of Pauline ethics is that is how do you apply the the gospel to your life you know what the the scandal of the new testament ethic is it is that the God who did it in this way gifts us to suffer for his sake as well he's called you to suffer for his sake in fact he tells them in verse 29 of chapter 1 that God favors us by allowing us to suffer for this one who suffered for us wow what an amazing thing that you have been called to give your life your stress your energy your resources to one who went to a cross and became a curse for you but notice the glory of the cross it's reveal in verses 10 and 11 in 9 10 11 actually look at this therefore since he did this since he suffered the death and across therefore now think about this a minute this is the eternal God God the son was the creator and sustainer of all things he's the one who spoke the universe into existence why would he need to die on the cross in order that these verses would be fulfilled of him he was in the form of God do you understand what's happening here that the second Adam the new man the Lord Jesus Christ God who became a man and as a man died on a cross and now he says therefore also God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the one who died on the cross he is bestowed on him the name which is above every name now in scripture when it talks about the name of God or the name of a person it is referring to this person being revealed the person revealed that's what a name is in the Bible you name your children based upon what would reveal their character or Abigail was married to a man named Nebaugh which meant a fool and you can imagine what his parents thought about him the name is as a revelation of the person and he says he gives him a name that at the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus the name that belongs to Jesus the one who died on the cross not just the eternal God who was on the throne of God for all eternity passed but the one who became a man who came in the likeness of sinful flesh and went to the cross and became an object of ridicule who became a curse for us who became sin for us this man Jesus who died on a cross he says at his name every knee should bow and you may be wondering well that must be every Christian oh no this is even the knee of heezer this is the knee of your buddy who ridicules Christianity this is the knee of everyone that you know notice what he says that every knee should bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth there will not be one person who inhabits hell who doesn't bow the knee to Jesus Christ ultimately because he died on a cross and he was raised from the death and he says and not only that but that every tongue should confess you know you could force a person to bow their knee you just you can get them in a certain position you twist their arm enough you can get them to bow the knee but what about getting them to confess with their mouth which reveals their heart every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father now this is an amazing thing we've looked at this before but this is an amazing truth here this is a quotation from the passage I read this morning from Isaiah 45 this is Yahweh speaking to his people in captivity because they had not recognized him as the only one true and living God and he was teaching them that he was the only God and then he gave his glory to no other and Paul quotes God in this passage in the midst of this passage that's the clearest and most sustained scriptural exposition of the exaltation of the one true and living God he quotes God and he applies it to Jesus Christ the weightiest declaration of the sovereignty of God there isn't all the Bible and he applies it to Jesus Christ who died on a cross he applies it to this man that when he was crucified all his followers fled because they thought it was all over this man who died on a cross Paul says of him and that's the whole point of the context that the one true God does not and cannot share his glory with anyone else and yet Paul says God shares his glory with this Jesus who died on a cross and notice why this man's been exalted and given the name Lord because quite simply he has done what only the one true and living God could do he saved men from their sins you want to do something you want to see something that's powerful you know it doesn't amaze you what people what what men can do today that we can put we can put people into space they can create a space station where people actually inhabit it outside the you know in the out out in the atmosphere of the earth is not an amazing thing that they can send a rocket to Mars that we can build buildings the way we do that our technology is so highly developed the smartest man in the world the richest man in the world Bill Gates he's not the smartest but he's the richest Bill Gates could not get rid of your sin Bill Gates could not save you from the condemnation of your sin and neither can any other powerful clever man Jesus did on the cross I mean can you can you can you can you let this sink into your head and your heart that God delivered you from sin he brought about the greatest display of the power of Almighty God by his son hanging on across in your place in other words in order to accomplish this great task this mighty mighty task of delivering men from sin he had to become so weak that he could die on a cross and so he has been highly exalted because he has done what only God can do Romans chapter 8 verse 3 says what the law cannot do you know what that means and you could apply it is referring specifically to the mosaic law but you could apply it to any other plan of making yourself right with God through your efforts what the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh I could give you a plan today and say if you really want to be spiritually rich if you want to be right with God if you want to go to heaven and spend eternity with God follow these ten rules and you would fail God gave ten rules but he says what the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh my inability he said God did by sending his son to become a sacrifice for sin by dying on the cross the truth about God is revealed supremely in the cross this is when we see God in all of his glory in fact Romans 5 says God demonstrates his own love for us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us this is the great power of the level God that Jesus would die on a cross for us discovering who and what God is through his self-revelation in Christ does something to you notice what it does to you in this passage it causes you to bow the knee confess with the mouth it causes you to worship when you understand the cross when the truth of the cross of Jesus Christ penetrates your heart when you come to see what it means what this reveals about you why was it necessary for Christ to die because of what you are because of what you've done when you come to see what it reveals about you and then when you come to see what it reveals about Almighty God about the heart of God about the character of God it will cause you to worship him you'll bow the knee and you'll confess with the mouth and you know the other thing which Paul is going to expand on this book is it will cause you to worship not only worship him but to serve one another you know why Christians serve each other when we're motivated properly because we understand the cross to some degree or another and you come to understand the cross it makes you want to serve God's people if you're a lump on a log if you never lift your finger to serve the people of God if this truth ever gets a hole in your heart you'll be transformed into a servant who's full of energy who's full of a great desire to serve the people of God because he understands what the cross really means Paul's pointing this passage he's calling us to be humble servants like Jesus Christ to humble ourselves to see ourselves as servants of one another because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us on earth you want to position yourself to receive the blessings of God in the year 2001 see some people that kind of statement if they think I'm being legalistic when I say you've got to do something I wish Mary was here because he he thinks I never tell people to do anything I only tell them what God's done for them I want to tell you it when I that is not legalism to tell you if you want to experience the great blessings of God you have to position yourself before God and this people in a certain way you've got to get ready to be blessed and the way to get ready to be blessed is to be so captured by the cross that you humble yourself as Jesus did and you begin to see yourself as a servant of the servants of the servant the Lord Jesus Christ and that's what he's called us to do so as we go into this new year it doesn't matter what happens the economy if it goes into the tank if it gets bad if it gets better if we discover that you can prosper under a publican as well as a Democrat whatever happens it doesn't matter because the economy of heaven is never ever ever affected by the economy of the servant and let me show you a verse for that as I close look at Ephesians chapter 1 see verse 10 of Ephesians 1 with a view in the words this is God's ultimate intention this is the goal towards which God is working with a view to an economy the word administration or economy is the word from which we get our word economy with a view to an economy suitable to the fullness of times what kind of an economy will that be some of you think it's going to be capitalism it's not the economy of the fullness of times is the summing up of all things in Christ things in heaven and things upon the earth in other words you will come to understand that whatever you receive and however you receive it is dependent upon Christ pouring it out into your life that changes everything if you think the reason that you prospered this year is because you're so smart and so skilled and you don't understand that the reason you've been so richly blessed this past year is because Christ has poured out his blessings into your life then you don't understand the economy of God and the great thing about this is the economy can go totally belly up and you know what Christ continues to bless his people this people that the book of Philippians was written to this people experienced severe poverty and yet in the midst of that poverty they experienced the great blessings of Christ to the degree that they even gave from their finances out of their poverty to meet the needs of fellow believers in Palestine in other words you could be so rich in God that even if you're financially poor you can still give some Christians think you know I will learn to give as soon as I have an abundance as soon as I make a lot of money and I and I man if I make twice as much as I do now I'll have so much extra money I can really start giving and then they make twice as much money in three times and four times and they realize they still can't give because the more money you make the more money it takes to listen and then when you discover the economy of God that Christ is the one who dispenses his grace into your life it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor he'll empower you to give not just money but yourself you'll be able to pour yourself out the way Christ poured himself out for us that's what he has in store for us that we can decon do it's that that has so much grace flowing through us that we can hardly stand it and you know I believe this because of the pattern of God because God loves to display his power and weakness that's what happened across the weakness of God and God displayed the mightiest act of power the greatest demonstration of power ever in all the history of redemption on the cross the same way in your life it's when you are really weak the God and you understand it that God can display his great power through you and you can become an incredible conduit for the grace of God as it flows through you into the lives of other people don't waste your trials and your difficulties and your challenges don't waste those those are those are wonderful opportunities for God to use you in a great way that's going to in the effects of that will last for all eternity I promise you that I stake my reputation on that that God's faithful let's stand together and pray our kind and gracious Heavenly Father we thank you for the simple gatherings of your people that we can come together like this and while the world is in just a mad rush we can come aside and we can offer you our worship as flawed and failing as we are we turn to you and we offer worship we sing these songs that have such incredible words expressions of faith and we know we are so weak in faith and yet we can sing these songs with vigor as a spirit of God fills our hearts we realize you are so good to us you have so richly you have overwhelmed us with your grace and your goodness and Father sometimes we have to get so weak to really come to understand but I pray that you'd help us to be like Paul that we could learn to abound and to be a base that we could learn Father to be content whether we have a lot or we have a little because we can learn the economy of the kingdom of God that Jesus Christ is our source and they we take everything every blessing that comes to us as a gift from the one who died for us that we might live to you we pray help us to live this next year as your servants I pray God give us that mindset as a church that we would be a community of servants and help us to have eyes to see the tasks that you lay before us we pray so that your son would be glorified and so that your people will be transformed and changed into the image of Christ we pray in Jesus' name amen amen happy New Year