Sermons 2026

Text: Philippians 2:1-18 

Theme: “A Servant Humility”

Outline
1.    Hard to be humble, SN desires placing ourselves above others
2.    Yet, what did JC do? Servants form, criminal’s death, for our benefit
3.    We imitate our Savior, placing others above ourselves

Sermon

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation is the Epistle of Saint Paul sent to the church in Philippi the second chapter verses one through eighteen.

Beloved lambs, I pray that you are doing well today. Do you know what I have here? I have a change of clothes! When do you change your clothes? You change your clothes when they are dirty and smelly. You put pyjamas on every night and replace them with new clothes every day. Would any of you put on dirty, stinking clothing? I am sure that you would not. Mom and dad would probably make you change. Yet, that is what Jesus did for us. Our text says that Jesus emptied Himself. How did Jesus empty Himself? How do we still empty ourselves today? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    Humbleness required

The church is a bunch of no good, dirty, rotten, sinners. This statement should not surprise you, though it does surprise many people in our world today. Many in the world expect that the church will have holy people within it. They are surprised when our sinful nature shows itself. When we are clothed not with the robe of Christ but with our own dirty, stained, hole-filled clothing. This happens often, even within the church. Where sinners are living and working together with sinners, pride and selfishness are always rearing their ugly heads. The devil works particularly hard to use those products of each member’s sinful nature to disrupt the congregation’s work through disharmony and strife. In flourishing congregations, where many members are knowledgeable and gifted, there is always the danger of the more gifted members looking down upon the less gifted and of the less gifted envying the more gifted. And it is always characteristic of human nature to minimize one’s own weaknesses and to exaggerate one’s own strengths, while doing just the opposite when observing the weaknesses and strengths of others. These things can severely stunt the spiritual growth of any congregation.   

Thus, Saint Paul gives his encouragement to the church in Philippi, and to us as well, by reminding us of Whose we are. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ” 

Paul says that you have been encouraged by Christ. You know His great love for you showing on the cross of Calvary. You are made a new creation by the working of the Holy Spirit. Act like it! Show not your clothing stained and dirty, but show Christ who clothes you with His righteousness. Your faith shows itself when you do not act how the world and your sinful nature wants to. You do not put your wants, desires, and needs before others, but in humility, put others needs, desires, and wants before your own.

Humility and Lowliness is the distinctive mark of the committed Christian. Lowliness is the opposite of the selfishness and pride of our corrupt sinful natures. First-century society placed little value on lowliness. In fact, it regarded lowliness as the equivalent of cowardice and equated pride and self-assertiveness with manhood. The non-Christian world today thinks in the same way. Books and classes offering assertiveness training and effective methods of exercising power and “looking out for number one” are tremendously popular and profitable. But the attitude of a heart changed by God’s grace is no longer “me first and everybody else after me, if at all.” Rather, it is an attitude that humbly and lovingly places the interests of others before one’s own. 

2.    Christ Example

How can we do this? Because we follow the example of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus is God in His very nature. As we confess in the Nicene Creed, Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father. From all eternity Jesus has been one with the Father, being truly God. His eternal existence as God is unshakable and unchangeable  He does not need to grasp, the Greek word would be better translated rob, God’s authority and power for Himself, He is equal with the Father in power, majesty, authority, and everything else that we can say about who God is. 

Yet, notice how deeply Jesus humbled Himself for your sake. Jesus’ divine nature is not capable of experiencing humiliation, yet Jesus, while fully retaining his divine nature, took on a true human nature. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He who is true God from all eternity became a true man and dwelt among men.  In Jesus’ incarnation, the human nature that Jesus assumed shared in all the characteristics of his divine nature. The two natures are now perfectly united.  Yet, Jesus took on “the very nature of a servant.” It was as if he covered the glory of his divine majesty with the tattered rags of a beggar.  Although he is the Lord of the universe, he was born in a stable. He never possessed earthly property or wealth. He was despised by many of his contemporaries. He placed himself under the demands of God’s law. He took on the nature of a servant while he retained, but did not always use, the full power and majesty of God. 

Jesus perfectly fulfilled the will of the Father, as the obedient Son, even though it meant going to the cross. In Old Testament Israel, after a wrongdoer had been put to death, the civil laws prescribed that his dead body be nailed to a post or a tree. This was to impress upon the people that this individual, by his transgression, had suffered the ultimate curse of being cut off from God and his believing people. If, in the sight of God, the hanging of a dead body signified his curse, how much more then would the hanging of a living person be considered a curse, especially when that person was experiencing anguish beyond description. How deliberately and heavily the words fall as the apostle describes the ultimate humiliation of the God-man: even death on a cross.  Jesus goes through this shame, humiliation, and degregation for your sake. God sheds His blood for your forgiveness, crushes the might of Satan and death that you might be His own and live under Him in His kingdom forever.

3.    Imitate Christ

That humility is what we are called to share with each other as Christians. Our Lord showed his unselfishness for us, how can we be selfish to others? Can we refuse to relinquish our rights or to suffer wrong at the hands of others when love requires it? He became obedient to death for us, and by faith we now have the mind of Christ. Will we not serve one another willingly for his sake? Will we not joyfully make those relatively small sacrifices by which we serve one another and thus give evidence that we truly have the mind of Christ? Yes, we can and we will.

As the old idiom says, “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” We not only walk in their shoes, we serve them with all joy, meeting their needs before our own. Husbands, you do this daily, meeting the needs of your wives before your own. Wives, you put the needs of your husband before your own. Parents, you put the needs of your children, or grandchildren before yours, making sure they have enough to eat and are well cared for before using your money on things that you desire. You see someone stranded on the side of the road, what do you do? I pray that you would go over and see if they need help before continuing on your way. We do this, and many more, because of the great love Jesus Christ has shown to us. The Christian’s life, like Jesus’ life, travels the path from humility to glory, from cross to crown, because Jesus has graciously determined that it should be that way. 

Jesus is no longer in a state of humiliation, but now He is exalted forever. In his exaltation it is the Father’s will that he receive the homage of all created beings. The day will come when we will see our Lord come, and bow before Him in joy and praise for everything He has done for us men and for our salvation.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.