Glynlea Grace United Methodist Chruch

Scripture

Philippians 2:5-11

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

  Core Idea, Challenge & Summary

Core Idea: Jesus is God become human. He became human because He loves us.

Challenge: To meditate on the real Christmas.

Summary: I love watching my son get excited about Christmas trees and opening gifts. I also love joining my family over lots and lots of food. If I’m not careful, I’ll allow these things to become the focus of my Christmas celebration.  I’ll forget that Christmas is really about God becoming human.  By comparison, everything else is insignificant.

Back in the early 1990s, Joan Osborne produced a hit song titled, “What if God was one of us?” Every time I hear that song I want to find this lady, grab her by the shoulders and yell out the good news that God has already become one of us!!! It happened a little over 2,000 years ago in the small town of Bethlehem. God became a little human baby named Jesus. The Bible teaches us what it means for us that God became human.

Philippians 2:5-11 summarizes how God became human. God the Son emptied Himself of all His Godly attributes to become a baby human named Jesus. Then He lived a perfect human life to be our example. By perfectly obeying God the Father, Jesus demonstrated to us how we should be obedient to God. This obedience led Him to death on a cross. On the third day, God resurrected Jesus and proclaimed Him Lord. Jesus is the only human who can claim to be God and that makes Him Lord.

God loved us enough to become a lowly human destined to suffer and die on a cross. That’s what Christmas is all about. God became human.  

The Sermon

I. Introduction: Joan Osborne and “What if God was one of us?”

     B. Joan Osborne song titled, “What if God was one of us?”

• Written in early 1990s
• Chorus: What if God was one of us --Just a slob like one of us--Just a stranger on the bus--Trying to make his way home
• Brings up a great question: “What if God was one of us?”

     C. The answer to her question is in Scripture

• A little over 2,000 years ago, God became a little baby human named Jesus – Scripture makes this very clear
• Scripture explains what this means for each of us – Scripture explains the significance of God becoming human
• Philippians 2:5-11 explains how God became human

II. Philippians 2:5-11

     A. Without an understanding of the Trinity, this passage doesn’t make much sense.

• There is only one true God
• The one true God is made up of 3 persons: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit
• To worship one is to worship all three because the three make up the one true God.

• We are to be humble like Jesus
• Jesus is the perfect example of humility
• Jesus is God the Son

• ‘form’ is translated from the Greek word morfh, (morpha). It refers to the very nature or essence of something. Christ Jesus is, in His very essence or nature, God.  Christ Jesus is God.
• ‘grasped’ is translated from the Greek word a`rpagmo,j (arpagmos). It means ‘to hold on to’. Christ Jesus did not consider the power and attributes of being God something to hold on to.

• Christ Jesus emptied Himself of the power and attributes of God in order to be human.
• God became human
• Jesus is like us in His birth. He was born the same as you and me. Jesus is not like us in His conception. The Holy Spirit caused the virgin Mary to be pregnant.  God became human.

• Christ Jesus became, in His very essence or nature human. He became God in the flesh, fuly God and fully human.
• As a human, Jesus was perfectly obedient to God the Father. Obedient to death.
• The relationship Jesus had with His Father is the same type of relationship we should seek with God. Jesus is our example.

• As a result of being obedient, God declares Jesus to be Lord.
• Jesus rose from the dead, proving He's God in the flesh and conquering sin, death and evil on our behalf.

III. A hypothetical situation to demonstrate what Jesus did

     A. Imagine Donald Trump, one of the richest men in the world – Multi-billionaire

• He looks down from one of his tall buildings and sees some homeless people
• He thinks, “I would like to teach them how to handle money and get off the streets but they won’t listen to a big whig like me. They can’t relate to me. I know, I’ll become one of them. I’ll become homeless. Then they’ll listen to me.”

     B. Donald Trump becomes homeless

• Resigns all his positions of authority
• Sells all his properties: All his real estate, vehicles, homes, clothes, boats…everything. Gives all the money he makes from the sales to charity.
• Liquidates all his assets and gives all his cash to charity.
• He leaves himself absolutely nothing but the clothes on his back and $1,000.00 in his pocket.
• Donald Trump is homeless
• The homeless Donald Trump begins to teach the homeless about money

IV. Why would God do this? God became human because He loves us.

     A. God, the Creator of billions of planets and suns, became human out of love.

     B. Many people have a hard time with this. They can’t believe Jesus is God in the

          flesh because they can’t believe God loves us that much.

     C. This is what Christmas is all about.

• From now until Christmas we’ll explore what it means for us that God became human.
• We’ll answer the question, “What does the fact that God became human mean for me as an individual person? How does it affect my life?”
• By the time Christmas Eve comes around, we’ll need to respond to God’s love. We’ll need to respond to the reality that God became human.