Humble King

What this episode covers

About this series: Obviously we are always focussed on Jesus, but in our first series - Just Jesus - we’re going to look, over 13 weeks, at some of the high points in the New Testament that show us who Jesus is, why he’s so wonderful, what he’s done for us and what it means to live in the light of all that. Sinclair Ferguson wrote, ‘We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing and extolling Jesus Christ’ - that is precisely our aim in the Just Jesus series. The more we see of Jesus, the more we’ll have to be delighted in and the greater will be our motivation to live for him in our everyday lives.So, come with great expectation that the Holy Spirit will be powerfully at work leading us to know and love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. About this talk: Scripture: Philippians 2:1-11 This passage is widely believed to contain a hymn of the early church - vs 6-11 being a declaration of praise to God for the condescension and exaltation of Jesus. “Therefore” (v 1) means that Paul is making some sort of conclusion based on what he’s been saying up to that point. His four “if”s at the end of chapter 1 don’t mean, “if” as in “maybe you have these things, maybe you haven’t.” It’s “if” as in, “If you have breath in your lungs (which you obviously have), if you have reason to sing (which you clearly do), then praise the Lord” - ie. you have received all these blessings from being in Christ together, so be one in mind, in love, in spirit. And to then make his point all the more forcefully and powerfully Paul writes of the example of Jesus himself. If he, though in very nature God, lowered himself and exhibited the qualities mentioned in vs 3-4, then follow his example. But not only did Christ humble himself; he was then exalted to the highest place, as will be acknowledged fully when all confess him as Lord and bow before him - Paul employing this ancient hymn to express this so beautifully. This magnificent passage describes so much about who Jesus is and what he is like, leading us to worship and adore him both now and forever. We look further into: - How does the example of Jesus lead us to, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit [but] in humility [to] value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others”? Can you give some personal and practical examples? - What does it mean that Jesus was “in very nature (Gk. μορφη, morphe) God” and took “the very nature (Gk. μορφη, morphe) of a servant”? What does this tell us about him and what he came to do? - If he loved us to such an extraordinary extent, what might it look like for us to love him in return - bowing before him and acknowledging that he is Lord (vs 10-11)?

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