Philippians 2:5-11
Sunday, February 24, 2002
There are certain words in the English language that just communicate so much by their very sound. One of those words that I love is the word flabbergasted.
The word means: To cause to be overcome with astonishment; astound, surprise.
Synonyms include: dumbfounded, stupefied, thunderstruck
Why bring up this word today - well the passage before us is one that I believe should leave us flabbergasted, dumbfounded, stupefied, thunderstruck. Yet too often we have become so familiar with the truths of God’s Word that we pass over them with a ho hum.
Today I hope that I can restore some of the wonder of this amazing passage.
1. Jesus - Very God Philippians 2:6
KJV Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
NIV Philippians 2:6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
a. In very nature God - the trinity
This is where so many cults stumble from the path of truth. Jesus and God the Father are one. Our human minds are too finite to grasp the entirety of such an amazing truth - three in one. So instead we come up with explanations that try to reduce it to something we can understand. Usually these explanations make one of two errors. Either they emphasize the one at the expense of the three, or they emphasize the three at the expense of the one. Some try to say God is one, with three different manifestations. In the OT he was Jehovah, in the NT he was Jesus, in the present day he is the Spirit. Of course that makes Jesus a Schizophrenic in the Gospels when he prays to the Father.
The second and more common mistake is to emphasize the three at the expense of the one. The JW’s and the Mormons and most other modern cults make this mistake.
John 1:1
Jesus is very God
b. Not grasping to his Godness
, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
ASV Philippians 2:6 who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
He did not cling to his Godness
2. Jesus - Very man -- Philippians 2:7
KJV Philippians 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
NIV Philippians 2:7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Isaiah 7:14
3. Jesus - Truly Humble 2:9
NIV Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
How humbling that the ever living God of the universe would die
And then that he would die the humiliating death of the cross.
The Romans considered it so humiliating that they would not execute a Roman citizen by this means. For the Jews - cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.
4. Jesus - Highly exalted 2:9-11
Second coming - every knee will bow either voluntarily or involuntarily
The Point 2:5
Let this mind be in you.
