Welcome to the Westminster Pulpit, an extension of the worship ministry at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Please contact us for permission before reproducing this message in any format, and may this sermon nurture your life in a meaningful way as we proclaim our Savior. privilege to, maybe tonight, welcoming Troy DeBruin, who was on our staff for 13 years as youth pastor and then our most recent church planter, planting Proclamation PCA in Mount Joy. And such a delight, Troy, to have you bring God's word to us as you come back. Thank you, Chris. I do bring greetings from your brothers and sisters at Proclamation and Mount Joy, and also from my wife Amy and the rest of the DeBruin family. I believe I was here three years ago during the Lent series and gave a brief update on the family, and I'll do that again. I apologize to those of you who do not know me, and I don't have the privilege of knowing. But just a quick update. So Amy and I are basically empty nesters now, which is very strange for us. Amy has recently started working outside of the home as a home care provider at Masonic Village. We live now in E-Town, just about a mile away from Masonic Village, although we do not hope to ever move in there. We're happy where we're at. But it is a wonderful place. Our oldest daughter, Elena, is 27, and she worked as a labor and delivery nurse at Harrisburg Hospital, where she was born. But now she is about to graduate MA from Georgetown with her master's, and she's going to be a midwife, Lord willing. Molly worked right next to me in the office at Proclamation, which was wonderful, as she ran the church for us until the Lord called her far away to Ethiopia. She's home right now, but working hard to make her way back to Ethiopia long term, and we thank you for your prayers and your support. Our son, Luke, is 24, and he graduated from Thaddeus Stevens, and he continues to work as an electrician, a foreman at Spring Garden Electric in this area. And then our twins, Lydia and Ella, are 22. Lydia graduated last year from Grove City, and she lives and works in Virginia. She's a social work major. She's thinking about going back to school, to Westminster Seminary for counseling. And then her twin sister, Ella, will graduate this May with her nursing degree from Messiah. And then you remember our dear son Anthony, dearly missed, never forgotten. It's hard to believe that the summer will be ten years since we buried him here in the cemetery at Westminster. And for Anthony, the prayer of Jesus has been answered. And I am so thankful that Chris included this in his sermon to start the series. From John chapter 17, it is amazing what Jesus prayed for us. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory. And so the prayer, the desire of our Savior, which is the greatest comfort in the death of a child of God, that prayer of Jesus has been answered. Anthony is where Jesus wants him to be. He is seeing the glory of Jesus face to face, not dimly like the rest of us, which brings me to why I'm here tonight. And thank you, Chris, for inviting me. When he told me that the theme was the glory of Christ, I thought, how could I say no? I love that theme. Chris began the series by telling us that the glory of Christ is the beauty of all that is praiseworthy about His nature and His character. And so I have one aim tonight, and that is to help you see that beauty as it is reflected and seen in the humiliation of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And my prayer is that your heart will be captivated by that glory. that you'll be compelled to respond with repentance and faith, with wonder and awe and praise and worship and love. Scriptures tell us in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that you by his poverty might become rich. Mark Jones comments on this verse and he says, in need of nothing, Jesus gave up his rights and privileges in order to save those who have nothing so that they might attain all that he surrendered. Beloved, I pray you'll see the glory of Jesus tonight and know that Jesus calls you to treasure, not away from it. Anytime that you worship and serve, the creature, the created thing, rather than the creator, you are making a very, very bad trade. And you always come out on the losing end. And it hurts you and others, no matter how good it may make you feel in the moment. And so what you need most tonight, what you need most in the midst of the sorrow and pain of your suffering, What you need most in the weight and guilt and shame of your sin is not distraction, is not entertainment, is not pleasure or comfort or any of the other ways that we self-medicate. What you need most is to behold the glory of Jesus, to look upon his goodness and beauty and truth and not look away until you are captivated. Until you know and believe and live in light of this truth, beloved, Jesus calls you to treasure, not away from it, because He is the treasure, and He calls you to Himself. So this is my aim, to help you see that and believe it. It's a pretty big aim. I'm swinging for the fences tonight. I don't know why you're here, but that's why I'm here. And since we're both here, why don't we make the most of it? I am insufficient for this task. But like Charles Spurgeon, I believe in the Holy Spirit. And God is able and willing and he is generous to meet our need tonight. And he says in the Psalms, open wide your mouth and I will fill it. So are you ready to feast? Let's pray. Father, you said, let there be light, and there was light. May you cause your light to shine in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of your glory in the face of Christ. Give us eyes to see tonight. Jesus, we pray that you would magnify your name to your people in the preaching of your word. And Holy Spirit. We ask that you would fall on all who hear tonight, that you would do what you love to do, that you would shine the spotlight on Jesus and give us minds to understand and hearts to love and trust in our Savior Jesus Christ. We pray in his name. Amen. Tonight we're going to look at the glory of Christ and His humiliation in three ways from Philippians chapter 2. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn to Philippians chapter 2. But we will look at the glory of Christ and His humiliation, and His birth, and His life, and in His death. As we turn to Philippians chapter 2, if you're willing and able, I will invite you to stand with me for the reading of God's word this evening. And I will read that familiar passage, verses 5 through 11. This is indeed the Word of the living God. It is a precious, life-giving truth, and I pray that we will all receive it as such tonight. Let's hear the Word of God, starting in verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This is indeed the word of God for the people of God this evening. You may be seated. Paul begins in verse 6 by saying to us that Jesus was in the form of God. And that word form refers to the outward manifestation of an inward reality. It signifies both the appearance and the being of God. So when Paul says that Jesus was in the form of God, what he's really saying is this, Jesus is truly and fully God. That was the theme of Dr. Rogers' message last week. He pointed us to Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. He told you about his coin collection and where it is if you want to swipe it. Hopefully no one did that this week. But his point was this. Jesus is the exact imprint of God. The human face of God. God in the flesh. And Christ's glory in his humiliation is magnified. It's seen more clearly. It's seen for what it rightly and truly is only when it is paired with the glory of his person as God. When we can see the heights from which he lowered himself. So Christ's glory and His humiliation is magnified by remembering, by keeping front and center before our eyes that Jesus was and He is and He always will be God Almighty. This is what Jesus says to us in Revelation chapter 1, verse 8, I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. So let us keep that in mind as we take our first look at the glory of Christ and the humiliation of his birth. So even though Jesus was and is God, Paul says he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but in verse 7, he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being born as a man, Paul says that Jesus emptied himself. Now this does not mean that Jesus emptied himself of his deity. He did not stop being God. The phrase there is explained by the two phrases that come after it in verse 7. He emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. That word form there is the same one that was used earlier. So now it's telling us that Jesus has taken upon the appearance and the very being of a servant. And this was an emptying for him for God Almighty to come to serve. Jesus also emptied himself by being born in the likeness of men. So Jesus remained truly God, but now he also became truly man. He remained what he always had been, But now he became what he was not. This is Jesus the creator taking on the form of the created. And this started with his lowly birth. The Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us that Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born and that in a low condition. Now let's consider the low condition of his birth and the humility of being born as a baby. 14th century preacher Simon of Cassius said, This is Jesus, the one with all power and authority, the one who is our help and our strength, who's not served by human hands as though he needed anything. This is the all-powerful, everywhere present, infinite God, willingly taking upon himself a human body from the point of conception, a body that is now confined to the womb of the Virgin Mary. God Almighty in the flesh, becomes vulnerable. He puts himself in a position of need, a position of helplessness. He now is physically dependent upon his parents, people who utterly depended on him for their life and breath and everything. As a baby who was born in a low condition, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the Almighty God, now for him to move He has to be carried by sinful hands. To have his needs met for warmth, for food, for touch, for sleep, for shelter, someone must respond to his cries. He depends on the compassion and the love of human beings. To be clothed, someone else must dress him. To eat, he must be fed by another. To open his mouth and depend on others to care for him, the one who knows all things. must learn, must learn to walk and talk. As a child, like any other child, he must be potty trained. He must be comforted when he falls and skins his knee and cries out in pain. Beloved, consider the glory of Christ, the almighty God, and the humiliation of his birth. He was a human child and baby and toddler. Let's take our second look, the glory of Christ and the humiliation of his life. Paul tells us that Jesus took the form of a servant, that he was found in human form. In his human life as a servant, Jesus experienced the humiliation of serving those who were created to serve him. Colossians 1 tells us that all things were created through Jesus and for Jesus. So Jesus made absolutely everything. And everything, including you, was made by Jesus and for Jesus. That is, we were made to serve Him. We were made for His glory. But in coming in the flesh, Jesus came to serve that which was made to serve him, God, the almighty creator, stooping low to serve his sinful creation. Jesus exemplified this service when he washed his disciples' feet, including the feet of Judas, who would betray him, and Peter, who would deny him. When Jesus came in human form, he experienced all the miseries of this life. You know, often we think of his suffering, his humiliation, only on the cross. But every day of his life, he suffered humiliation. The one before whom every knee should and will bow, willingly submitted himself to the slander and the mockery and the abuse and the rejection of sinful men. Jesus drew near to seek and to save the lost and he was slandered as a glutton and a drunkard. He performed miraculous acts of mercy upon the needy where he brought justice and he relieved suffering and he was said to be a servant of Satan. When he revealed who he was in John chapter 8, and he said that famous line before Abraham was, I am. I am Yahweh, the great I am. Instead of bowing down in worship as they should have, they attempted to stone the Rock of Ages. Sinful people in need of his saving grace, when he came to give it, they mocked him. They wag their heads at him. They heaped verbal abuse on him and they even spit in his face. His own family thought he was out of his mind. His brothers initially did not believe in him and taunted him. They were embarrassed by him. His own people, think of this, his own people chose to have Barabbas, a known murderer, They chose to have him let loose upon their community rather than have anything more to do with the Prince of Peace. Judas, one of the twelve, who spent that time in close fellowship with him, betrayed him with a kiss. The one who owns all things was traded for a fleeting bag of change. John Flaville said of this, was not this astonishing self-denial that he who from eternity had his father's smiles and honors, he that from the creation was adored and worshiped by angels as their God, must now become a footstool for every miscreant to tread on? What Christ our Lord was willing to suffer for us The humiliation of Christ's life is not only seen in his willingness to undergo all the miseries of this life, but also, Paul tells us, in being made under the law and his becoming obedient. And so here the one who gave the law, the one who's the judge of all mankind, the one before whom every person will give an account, he willingly places himself under the law that he had given. Consider for a moment just one example of his humble obedience, his baptism. John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus had no sin. He had no need to repent, yet he, the sinless one, submits himself to being baptized by a sinful man. And John had the awareness to recognize the role reversal. John saw his glory. John would say, I'm not worthy to untie your sandal. You came after me, but you were before me. You are God Almighty. John knew that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so he said to him, I need to be baptized by you. John saw it. He saw the beauty, the glory of Jesus. And yet, Jesus says, it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness. His very obedience was an act of humiliation and a revelation of his glory. Listen to Augustine on the glory of Christ and the humiliation of his life. In one of his sermons he says, man's maker was made man, that he, the ruler of the stars, might nurse at his mother's breast, that the bread might hunger, the fountain thirst, the light sleep, the way be tired on its journey, that the truth might be accused of false witness, the teacher be beaten with whips, the foundation be suspended on wood, that strength might grow weak, that the healer might be wounded, that life might die. This brings us to our third look, the glory of Christ and the humiliation of his death. Verse 8, Paul continues, Jesus was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And this is where Christ's humiliation reaches its crescendo. And I want us to notice two things here. First, Jesus humbled himself. He humbled himself. No one humbled him. You know, sometimes we talk about how we were humbled or we had a humbling experience. And we have more and more of those as we get older, don't we? some kind of setback that makes us realize we're not as great as we once thought we were. This happens to me often, but it happened to me a few years ago. Proclamation had one of those church softball teams, and I was on first base, probably got on there, threw a walk, and my son Luke was up to bat after me, and he hit one of those deep fly balls to right field, which is going to be an inside-the-park home run, and I am running as fast as I can, and as I round third base, I look, and he literally had to slow down so he doesn't pass me on the bases. I did not humble myself. That was not willing on my part. I was humbled by another. Maybe a little proud at the same time, but no one humbled Jesus. He willingly humbled himself. The glory of Christ and the humiliation of his birth, his life, and here at its highest point in his death is all the more praiseworthy because it was the result of his own free choice. This is his own doing. If Jesus was not willing, this does not happen. And no one is saved. But Jesus was willing. And his willingness took him all the way to death on a cross. Jesus was obedient to the point of death. And this was a substitutionary death. Beloved, Jesus became a man so he could die for you, in your place, for your sin. Death is the penalty, the payment for sin. Not simply physical death, but the death of our relationship with the God who made us. We know in the beginning Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden because of their sin, their rebellion against God. And now we are all born in sin, separated from this wonderful, holy God. We're no longer under his favor, but now we deserve his wrath, the just punishment for our sin. But Jesus humbled himself. He willingly became a man so that he could die, so he could die for the sins of his people. so he could stand in your place and take your punishment. Jesus, who was without sin, the spotless Lamb of God, he always did what pleased his Father, so he did not deserve to die. He did not fall short of the glory of God. He embodied the very glory of God, and he would not have died unless he willingly placed himself under the curse of God in your place. So in the ultimate example of humility, Christ died the most terrible, despised death possible. Death on a cross. This was a shameful public execution. Reserved for the worst of the worst. The lowest of the low. The scriptures tell us that Jesus was despised. Despised and rejected by men that he had created to know him. He was despised by men. And death on a cross was a sign of being cursed by the Holy God. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. So Jesus, hanging on the tree, nailed to the cross, this is the Holy God. He was and is and always will be in His death. He, the Holy God, who was without sin in any way, shape, or form. Jesus never sinned in thought, word, or deed. He had a pure heart. He had clean hands. The holy God, sinless, spotless, undefiled, willingly places himself under his own curse, where you deserve to be. He hangs in agony. He hangs in humility. Jesus, truly God from all eternity, willingly takes on human flesh, a real human body, so that in that body, As the true and only God-man, he can now be stricken, smitten, and cursed by God in your place for you." Martin Luther says, how amazing. How amazing that the Son of God says to me, you are no longer a sinner, I am. I am your substitute. John Stott says it like this in the cross of Christ. The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be. God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that belong to God alone, God in Christ willingly, humbly accepts penalties, the curse, the punishment that belong to man alone. Beloved, this is the glory of Christ and His humiliation on in His death. Hallelujah, what a Savior, amen? Beloved, this Jesus, God Almighty, died for you, but He is no longer dead. God exalted Jesus by raising Him from the dead. And that's for another sermon in this series. But Jesus willingly chose to humble Himself like this in His birth, in His life, in His death. No one else could. No one else would do that for you. There is a goodness. There is a beauty We could say a glory in this humility itself, the greatest display of this virtue we've ever seen. And the humility of Jesus is praiseworthy, and it's all the more so because it is voluntary. If you look at it long enough, if you meditate on it, you will see beyond the virtue itself. Your gaze will go beyond this incredible display of humility to the beauty of Jesus. For it's not the humility itself that is most glorious, that is most beautiful, but it is your Savior, Jesus Christ. And when you see His beauty, when you see His glory, there is but one compelling response. You bow to your knees before him in worship and adoration and praise, and you confess with your tongue that this Jesus is Lord. He is your Lord. And you marvel at him. You recognize that you were made to magnify his greatness, not to pursue or exalt your own. When you come face to face with his resplendent glory, do you not see how trivial how futile, how foolish it is to pursue your own glory, or to look to anyone or anything else to satisfy your soul. Beloved, Jesus is the one, the only, and you were made for glory. You were made to see it, and you were made to savor it, and that glory is found in Jesus. He calls you to treasure, not away from it, for he calls you to himself. So may you taste and see that the Lord is good and so be captivated by the glory of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would captivate our hearts in this very moment to draw our minds to the truth of your word. Seal it home. and bring fruit as you have promised you would do. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The Westminster Pulpit is courtesy of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You are welcome to worship with us on Sunday mornings at 8 or 11 a.m. To learn more or have questions about the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus our Savior, contact us at westpca.com. Thank you, and may Christ be glorified through this ministry, the Westminster Pulpit.