April 13, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God is Humble"

Philippians 2:5-11; John 12:12-19

How’s a Humble King Supposed to take over the World?

  1. Introduction
    1. Illustration – The New York Times, in October of 1999, featured this story: Mary Louise Starkey has a difficult job. She is trying to turn ordinary people into servants. The current economic climate has fueled the need for servants. In the past decade, the number of American households worth $10 million or more has quadrupled and the newly rich want help managing their large homes and busy lifestyles. Servants are needed, and Mary Starkey's International Institute for Household Management of Denver, Colorado, is trying to meet the need. With household managers earning $60,000 to $120,000 a year, applications are at an all-time high, but servanthood is not easy to learn. Those enrolled in the rigorous eight-week, $7,200 course devote themselves to mastering the more mundane aspects of running a large household: dealing with trades and outside vendors, managing household staff, learning table manners, and taking cooking classes. Instruction is given regarding setting a formal dinner table and ironing table linens so they are perfectly crisp and wrinkle free. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of servanthood, however, is the element of personal self-denial. A consulting beautician at the school recently told an attractive young female student to trim her long blond hair, lose the showy earrings, and lay off the red lip-liner. It seemed that her good looks were drawing attention away from her employers. Servants are not to draw attention to themselves; their only goal is to meet the needs of others (as cited on PreachingToday.com).
    2. Illustration – Jim McGuiggan quotes this story by Saul Bellows: In a small Jewish town in Russia, there is a rabbi who disappears each Friday morning for several hours. His devoted disciples boast that during those hours their rabbi goes up to heaven and talks to God. A stranger moves into town, and he's skeptical about all this, so he decides to check things out. He hides and watches. The rabbi gets up in the morning, says his prayers, and then dresses in peasant clothes. He grabs an axe, goes off into the woods, and cuts some firewood, which he then hauls to a shack on the outskirts of the village. There an old woman and her sick son live. He leaves them the wood, enough for a week, and then sneaks back home. Having observed the rabbi's actions, the newcomer stays on in the village and becomes his disciple. And whenever he hears one of the villagers say, "On Friday morning our rabbi ascends all the way to heaven," the newcomer quietly adds, "If not higher" (as cited on PreachingToday.com).
    3. Jay Kesler, in Marriage Partnership magazine (Vol. 8, no. 3) writes, Jesus-style love is the opposite of the world's power-based, accomplishment-equals-importance viewpoint. Christian love means putting the other person first, seeking the other person's well being regardless of what it costs (as cited on PreachingToday.com).
    4. All three of these stories have a single point: that to be Christ-like is to be humble. But how does that work? Proud and arrogant people run many countries of the world! Proud and arrogant people make big bucks leading huge corporations! Proud and arrogant people make decisions that impact millions and billions of people! And yet Jesus, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is just the opposite. Let’s read a couple of passages that will help us figure out how a humble King is supposed to take over the world, and how that King can help us transform our world.
  1. Scripture Passage
    1. Philippians 2:5-11 (from the New Living) - Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. 7 He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. 8 And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross. 9 Because of this, God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
    2. John 12:12-19 (also from the New Living) - The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city. A huge crowd of Passover visitors 13 took palm branches and went down the road to meet him. They shouted, "Praise God! Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hail to the King of Israel!" 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, fulfilling the prophecy that said: 15 "Don’t be afraid, people of Israel. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt." 16 His disciples didn’t realize at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered that these Scriptures had come true before their eyes. 17 Those in the crowd who had seen Jesus call Lazarus back to life were telling others all about it. 18 That was the main reason so many went out to meet him—because they had heard about this mighty miracle. 19 Then the Pharisees said to each other, "We’ve lost. Look, the whole world has gone after him!"
    3. Notice the contrast between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus was oblivious to all the attention, seeing as merely a means of fulfilling prophecy about Him. He never let success go to his head. The Pharisees only cared about one thing: that the people were paying more attention to someone else than they were to the Pharisees.
  1. Humility and Arrogance
    1. Jesus threatened the whole structure of the Jewish religious system. The Pharisees were in danger of losing their status and their privilege. They saw their rights being threatened. They were proud and arrogant and knew they had to do anything to protect their image in the eyes of the Jewish people. So they killed Jesus. In a lot of ways, they were like Saddam. If he didn’t like the news, he killed the messenger. So did Hitler, and Stalin, and Mussolini, and Hirohito, and Milosevic. And you don’t have to be killed physically to have your political future killed. We can easily see that the Pharisees were jealous and proud and arrogant people, just like the villains of our history.
    2. What we don’t as easily see is that we are also a lot like the Pharisees. Don’t believe me? Think about an area that you know really well or are really skilled in. Now think about how you react when someone tries to contradict what you say about that area. We all think we’re an expert in some area or another, no matter how small that area might be, and if someone challenges us we very easily become proud and arrogant and strike back. The same thing happens if someone challenges our comfort zones. We need help! We need to be unlike the Pharisees! We need to be like Jesus! How can we do that? We can learn a lot from the passages we’ve read.
    3. First, Jesus didn’t believe the press about Him. In other words, He didn’t care much what other people thought. When I imagine Him riding that donkey into Jerusalem, I don’t see Him waving to the crowds, or giving an election speech, or living it up. The Bible doesn’t record Him doing that! Instead, I see Him with a kind of patient tolerance and love for the people, caring about their needs while at the same time realizing that these same folks would call for His death on a cross. I’ve noticed something about myself that I hate: I care too much what people think about me. I believe we all do. But when we get God’s perspective on who we are in Him, just like Jesus had, then we care a lot less and we even begin to ignore the press about us.
    4. Second, Jesus didn’t demand His rights or preferences. If it would have been me, when the cross time came, I would have said, "Hey, I’m God’s Son, so I don’t have to do this!" I would have said something like, "My preference is to live out my life doing good, being popular, taking over the world, and never suffering. So that’s the way it’s gonna be!" We all do the same thing. If something about our Christian life or our Christian friends or our church isn’t to our liking, we assume that everyone has to cow-tow to our wishes and our comfort zones and do it our way! Jesus has much greater rights and power! One word and His enemies would have disappeared forever! One word and everything would fit His comfort level perfectly! One word and He could have imposed His will on everyone! He didn’t do that, and we’ve got to get out of the habit of doing that too! We’ve got to do what Philippians 2:4 says: "Every of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." Take care of your needs but see others’ needs as being of greater importance. Jesus didn’t demand His rights or preferences, and neither should we!
    5. Third, Jesus made Himself the bondslave of God. He was willing to do anything God asked of Him, no matter how difficult or gross or unappealing. He touched lepers. He washed the dirty, stinky, smelly feet of his disciples during a time when people didn’t bathe very often. He endured the knowledge of the suffering He would be required to go through, then He went through torture, ridicule, and cruel death. He made Himself willing to do whatever the Father asked. If we’re going to avoid the stumbling blocks of pride and arrogance, we’ve got to make ourselves the bondslaves of God as well. We’ve got to be willing to do anything God asks of us, no matter how difficult or gross or unappealing. No matter how far out of our comfort zones it is. No matter how much it stretches our faith to step forward in obedience. The only alternative is to become what our sinful natures want us to become: proud and self-serving and arrogant.
    6. Illustration – I found this online: Have you ever noticed: When the other fellow acts "that way", he is ugly; when you do, it’s nerves. When others are set in their ways, they’re obstinate; when you are, it is firmness. When your neighbor doesn’t like your friend, he’s prejudiced; when you don’t like his, you are a good judge of human nature. When he tries to treat someone especially well, he’s a flatterer; when you try it, you are being thoughtful. When he takes time to do things well, he’s a slowpoke or lazy; when you do, you are deliberate and careful. When he spends a lot, he is a spend thrift; when you do, you’re generous. When someone picks flaws in things, he’s cranky and critical; when you are, it is graciousness. When someone dresses especially well, that person is extravagant; when you do, it is tastefulness. When he says what he thinks, he’s spiteful; when you do, you are being frank. When he takes great risks in business, he’s foolhardy; when you do, you are a wise financier (as cited on SermonCentral.com). We all have the tendency to think like this. We’re all self-serving in our sinful natures. But praise God He sent Jesus to free us from that bondage. You see, when we choose not to believe our press, when we choose to give up our rights and preferences, when we choose to become bondslaves of God, then this humble King wins. Then we become His subjects. Then His kingdom moves forward and transforms our world. If we choose to allow the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts so we will be like our humble King, He will take over our world in the now because His love will permeate everything we do and everything we are. Our humble King is more than able to do this in our hearts and give us tremendous hope, if we will allow Him to.
    7. Illustration - Charles M. Crowe (Sermons For Special Days, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1951, p. 163) wrote, On February 24, 1948, one of the most unusual operations in medical history took place in Ohio State University’s department of research surgery. A stony sheath was removed from around the heart of Harry Besharra, a man thirty years of age. When only a boy he had been shot accidentally by a playmate with a .22-caliber rifle. The bullet had lodged in his heart but had not caused his death. However, a lime deposit had begun to form over the protective covering of the heart and gradually was strangling it. The operation was a delicate one separating the ribs and moving the left lung to one side. Then the stony coating was lifted form the heart as an orange is peeled. Immediately the pressure of the heart was reduced, and it responded by expanding and pumping normally. "I feel a thousand per cent better already," said the patient soon after the operation. There is a parable of life here. Our hearts develop a hard protective coating because of accidents and incidents in life. They are coated by the deposits of a thousand deceits and rebuffs. They are hardened by the pressure of circumstance. Inevitably they become smothered and insensitive to the divine. Ever so easily we find it easier to sneer than to pray. It becomes simpler to work than to worship. Self-satisfied, proud, often cynical, our hearts need a spiritual operation that only Christmas can perform when we dare to surrender our hearts’ burden before the cradle of Bethlehem (as cited on SermonCentral.com). We have great hope if we surrender ourselves and our rights to our humble King. The joy of surrender will blow us away. The bondage of arrogance will destroy us.
  1. Conclusion
    1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. Susan Annette Muto, in Blessings That Make Us Be (New York: Crossroads Publishing Company, 1982), wrote, The first barrier to meekness arises whenever we claim as our own what is really a gift of God. To live in meekness, we must try to remember that all we are, have, and can do is a gift. It is an act of arrogance to place ourselves at the center of being and doing. Only God belongs there. Arrogance is the opposite of humility. It compels us to treat our limits not as unique openings through which God can reveal his goodness but as diseases to be cured. We find it almost impossible to be self-effacing, as if we must maintain a know-it-all posture that demands a final answer to mystery. Basically, we perceive any sign of tenderness as a threat to our claim to be fully capable of caring for ourselves (as cited on SermonCentral.com).
    2. Muto is right. But the greatest joy of knowing we don’t have to bear the burden of taking care of ourselves can be ours. We just have to want to be like our humble King enough to let Him change our hearts. We have to disbelieve our own press, to refuse to hang on to our own rights and preferences, to become the bondslaves of Jesus. If that’s the commitment you’re willing to make to our humble King this morning, please either raise your hand or come pray at the altars.
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