Sermon “Humbled and Exalted” Philippians 2:5-11
Jesus, the very God, counted all his honor, all his majesty, all his glory as nothing.
He considered your need and my need as greater than all his status.
Did he need this in any way? Not at all. Yet his love compelled him. He hates sin so much that he will remove it from you and me even if it costs him everything.
Jesus knew the only complete sacrifice for sin had to fit two qualifications.
perfect, entirely unblemished
the same as the sinner
Jesus, God the Son, was the only one who could take on a human nature but without sin in order to be the sacrifice we needed.
He gave himself to be tempted in every way as we are.
He humbled himself and was subject even to the people in today’s Gospel reading who reviled him, who hurt him, who insulted him in every way.
Jesus does this because it is his intent to die, and with his death, to put your sin to death.
As we enter this time period, called “Holy Week,” we recognize that Jesus came to accomplish our salvation. We spend a lot of time talking about his humiliation. And that’s good. Like the two poles which show the contrast between the signs on them, Jesus’ humiliation makes his later exaltation more clear, more obvious, it makes it seem more glorious. Jesus humbled himself and died for you.
Is the story over then? Not at all. Next Sunday we see the culmination. Jesus, after he died for you and took your sin away, was not held captive by death. He rose from the dead, showing that by his grace through faith in him you also have access to his perfect, eternal life.
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