God’s Call: May my whole life be given in service of your love and salvation, use all that I have and all that I am for your purposes

I haven't posted the other sermons from the last two weeks, sorry. Here is this weeks sermon following the Wesleyan Covenant Sermon Series

Readings: Philippians 2:1-11

Introduction

Last imperative sentence as we draw the series to a close
• As we draw the series to a close this week and have our covenant services next week, we deal with the last imperative sentence and that is “May my whole life be given in service of your love and salvation, use all that I have and all that I am for your purposes.”
Sentence has far reaching consequences
• Now this particular sentence has very far reaching consequences because of what it means to give our whole lives in service to God with all that we have. In fact this sermon might well sound like a recruitment speech for the ordained ministry…or even more challenging recruitment to the nunnery or monastery. The challenge today, however, is not how you do it, but to do it where you are.
Follow e.g. of Christ
• Probably the most accurate way in which we can model our lives as Christians is to merely follow the example of Christ himself, to do what Christ would do in every situation. As Paul suggests in the passage we read today; “your attitude should be the same as Christ” in verse 5.
The sentence is the attitude of Christ
• The very same sentence that we will pray next week, is the same attitude that Christ took on in his life. He became a servant, he served, and he did it with all that he had wherever he was. So today what I want us to do is examine this passage from Philippians very carefully to see exactly what it then means to become that servant that Christ was. What it means to give our lives in service.

1. Carmen Christi

Passage is a hymn
• The passage we read today contains, from verse 6 what is known as the Carmen Christi (Philippians 2:5-11). It is one of many early hymns found in the New Testament. There are in fact many passages in the NT that take the form of Hymns i.e.
o Revelation 4:8: the living creatures surrounding the throne of the universe do not cease day and night to sing "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come;
o Ephesians 5:14: Paul quotes a hymn likely sung at baptisms "Awake sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.";
o 1 Timothy 3:16: : "He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, beheld by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.";
o John 1:1-18: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God," and builds up to that climax of "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" and ends "No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God who was in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him."
This hymn is the Hymn of hymns – 3 stanzas
• The Carmen Christi is the hymn of all hymns because it highlights a decision, made by Jesus in his pre-earthly state, which is the driving force of salvation history. The hymn can be neatly divided into three stanzas. These three stanzas depict the three major movements in our Lord's career, if career is even the right word to use. The first stanza, 2:6-7a, sings of Jesus' pre-earthly existence. The second stanza, verses 7b-8, sings of Jesus' earthly existence, of Bethlehem to Calvary. And the third stanza, verses 9-11, sings of Jesus' post-earthly existence, of a time after Bethlehem and Calvary up to the present and on into the future.
3 Stanzas are 3 movements
• It was the Swiss theologian Emil Brüner who suggested that we could represent this threefold movement of our Lord's career.
• Movement one: Jesus' career begins in the heights of glory.
• Movement two: Through progressively deeper stages of self-emptying, he descends into the depth of the created becoming a human being and accepting the entirety of the human condition. And then,
• Movement three: Because he accepted and fulfilled this descent, he is exalted to the highest place in the universe.
He did not consider – fundamental decision
• Now, the fundamental affirmation sung by the hymn is this. This whole threefold movement turns on a decision. It all emerges from a decision that Jesus made in his pre-earthly state. The hymn sings, verse 6, "He did not consider." The whole of salvation history flows from that decision. "He did not consider" is the driving force of history.
• In order to appreciate the magnitude of this decision we need to understand the key words and terms of the hymn, perhaps you want to open up your bible to the passage and follow with me.

2. Key Terms

Form
• Verse 6; Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. The sentence is in the past tense, suggesting that this had to do with Christ’s pre-earthly shape. The word translated as nature in the NIV is in fact better translated as form (Greek – morphe) which literally means to have every attribute of something. In his pre-earthly shape, Jesus possessed inwardly and displayed outwardly the nature of God.
Made himself nothing
• Verse 7, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. The phrase that stands out there is made himself nothing…or perhaps another translation that makes better sense is that he emptied himself. Jesus emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, not by releasing his divine nature. Again the Greek word morphe appears here but with reference to a slave; Jesus inwardly and outwardly took on the form of a servant, or slave (this is not the same as someone who is paid to do the job).
Appearance of a man
• Verse 8, And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! Appearance is the key term here. The writer of this hymn is choosing words very carefully. The Greek word is related to the word for image, but with a slight difference. Image implies an exact representation of the original. Appearance emphasizes a similarity, but it allows for a difference between the original and the copy. The point is "being born in human likeness" expresses the fact that he who was by nature God became a human being, but not merely a human being. Jesus truly became a human being, shared in our human nature, but was not merely a human being.
Obedient
• Verse 8, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! The word Obedient here is in contrast to the first human being, Adam, Jesus lived a life of full obedience to the Father. The first human, Adam, chose to live out human freedom in disobedience, and that disobedience resulted in the ruin of the world. But when the eternal One becomes a human being, when he, the last Adam, comes, he chooses to exercise human freedom in obedience; and his obedience means the redemption of the world.
Name
• Verse 10, name: Because Jesus emptied himself, took on the form of a servant, and was obedient even to a death on the cross; he was given the name above every name…in fact the very name of God.
• Now we are ready to appreciate the magnitude of the decision that Jesus Christ made in his pre-earthly state.

3. Jesus' pre-earthly decision highlights what it means to be God.

Equality not to be taken advantage of
• Jesus did not view his equality with God as something to be grasped. In fact the better translation here would be that he did not consider it something to be taken advantage of, or exploited.
Primary motivation not us – why then?
• Jesus' primary motivation for emptying himself was not our need for a saviour. Although Christ came for our need of salvation, because we really need it, the hymn makes no reference to the fact that Christ did this only for us. Why then? Why did he do it?
Equality with God was not one thing but another
• The key term here is; "He did not consider equality with God to be…." He did not consider equality with God to be one thing; he considered equality with God to be another. The language suggests the following picture:
Equality with God = emptying oneself not taking advantage of
• In his pre-earthly state, the Son of God is contemplating what it means to be equal with his Father, and he comes to a conclusion that no one expects. He comes to the conclusion that equality with God is not something to take advantage of, but rather, he concludes that equality with God means emptying one's self and taking the form of a servant. Did you hear that? Equality with God means emptying one's self and taking the form of a servant.
Emptying was the proper expression of divinity – NT Wright
• So then Jesus made the decision to empty himself because self-emptying love is the proper expression of divine status. N.T. Wright, a great NT scholar says this; “"Divine equality does not mean getting but giving, and it is properly expressed in self-giving love."
Jesus did not strip his divinity, he was expressing his divinity
• Did you hear that? In becoming a human being, Jesus Christ, God the Son, did not cease to be what he was. He did not renounce his divinity. He did not strip himself of his divinity. Rather, in becoming human and becoming a servant, he was expressing what all that divinity means. He did not consider equality with God something to take advantage of. He considered equality with God to be self-emptying servanthood.

4. The gospel writers understood the divinity of Jesus' self-emptying love.

• If we read the gospels, we discover that the authors seemed to understand this mystery.
Roman soldier declaring Christ’s divinity in the crucifixion
• Mark 15:39 - A Roman soldier is looking up at the dying Jesus. He's looking up at the dying Jesus, and he says, "Truly this was the Son of God." Now what made this soldier realise that? What did he see that warranted that statement? Nothing we would expect…just this self-emptying, self-giving love. And in that moment he knew that this was the Son of God. For the Gospel writers, the passion of Jesus is not his human misfortune. The passion of Jesus is his decisive manifestation of his divinity.
The ‘Hour’ is his Glorification
• John 12: 23-25 - John identifies the moments before Jesus' death as the hour of his glorification. The hour is suggesting that moment when he still be crucified and killed, as suggested by the illustration of the seed dying…that is his glorification, not the resurrection, the resurrection is the result of the glorification.
Washing feet was a divine status
• Furthermore in John 13:1-5 Jesus knowingly washed his disciples' feet as a manifestation of his divine status.

Conclusion

Being a servant is not glamorous, but we do it because Christ does
• So now we come to the conclusion; next Sunday we will be making a promise to give our lives as servants with all that we have and in everything that we do. That does not seem like a particularly blessed thing to do, not glamorous at all. Why do it then? Do it because we should have the same attitude of Christ.
It is part of what we were created to do
• Now, if being like Christ does not mean something to take advantage of but emptying himself, can being human mean anything less? We were created in the image of God, and as Karl Barth teaches, that means we are created to reflect the nature and character of God. Which means that we are most fully human when we most completely reflect God's nature and character.
We are most of what we were created to be when we are servants
• In Jesus we discover that God understands being God in terms of servanthood. We, therefore, are most what we were created to be when we empty ourselves and take the form of a servant. Deep down in our souls we know this is right. Because who are the most fulfilled persons in our lives? Are they not those who have lost themselves in creative self-giving?

Amen