The Christ of Christmas: Wrapped in Humility

When you look at the baby in the manger, what do you see? Do you see a child destined to be King? Do you see a Savior wrapped in swaddling clothes? Do you see God with us? What do you see? Well, when Charles Wesley got to the second stanza of his great Christmas Hymn, Hark the Herold Angels Sing, he told us what He saw.

He saw Christ, by highest heaven adored,
He saw Christ, the everlasting Lord,
He saw the offspring of the Virgin’s womb. And this is how he described him: Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity,
For he saw Jesus, our Immanuel.

Lying there wrapped in swaddling clothes was a child worshiped by angels and adored by all of heaven. Sleeping in that manger was the everlasting Lord of the Universe – the promised Messiah born of a Virgin. The Triune God shrouded in human flesh. This was no ordinary child, but God incarnate who came dwell with us. Do you ever wonder why Jesus came into our world this way – all wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying a manger? Why wasn’t Jesus born in a palace? Why wasn’t he surrounded by dignitaries and priests? Why wasn’t Jesus born with a scepter rather than in a stable? Why?

Here’s why. It’s because God wanted us to see what He is really like. It was no accident that Jesus came into our world this way. For the way He came into our world is the way He chose to live in our world. Not as Lord over all but as the servant of all.

How do we know this? How do we know that this is the way Jesus chose to live among us? Well, that’s the subject of our passage this morning. So, if you brought your Bible with you today, let me encourage you to open it to Philippians 2:5-11, where we’re going see what led Jesus to leave the glories of heaven to become the servant of all. And as we do, we’re also going to see how Jesus has shown us how we are to live with one another as we follow Him.

So, if you’ve found Philippians 2, let’s look at how we are included in Christ’s story. In verse 5, Paul gives us this command: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5 Paul is writing to the believers in Philippi. And it is here that he is addressing an issue in this church. It seems that there were a couple of ladies who fighting among themselves. And their petty squabbles were creating a division within this church. So, to help this church heal this division and restore their unity, Paul commands them to pursue Christlike humility, by commanding them to think like Jesus.

And in showing them how all believers are to think like Jesus, he gives us an insider’s view of how Jesus came to us as a baby wrapped in humility. But before we look at the mindset of Jesus, I want us to grasp the reality of two truths found in this command. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

The first truth is this: If you are in Christ, you already have the mind of Christ. In other words, if you have believed in Jesus, you are in Christ. For the moment you trusted in Christ, you were untied with Him. You were placed in Christ, and now the Spirit of Christ lives in you. Therefore, you have the mind of Christ. But that doesn’t mean the mind of Christ has you. For most of us, the way we think has been programmed or deeply influenced by our world. That is why we need a steady diet of God’s Word. God wants to renew our minds, so that we will no longer think like the world, but begin to think like Jesus. But here’s the good news. God’s Word does say you have the mind of Christ. In other words, the moment you believed in Jesus, God gave you a new operating system by which you can relate to the world. Every believer in Christ now has the potential to think like Jesus. And that’s what we’re going to look at in a few moments. That’s the first truth you need to grasp: you have the mind of Christ.

Here’s the second truth: God wants the mind of Christ in you to determine how you relate with others in the community of faith. God wants you to think about your brothers and sisters in the same way Jesus thinks about them. He wants you to value them, encourage them, serve them. Not use them to get what you want. That’s the way the world thinks. The world wants you to put people in boxes. The world wants you to compare yourself with others. And the world wants you to think of people for how they can benefit you, for how they can advance you, profit you, or make you look better.

However, Jesus doesn’t think this way of anyone. He thinks of everyone as someone created in God’s image and likeness. Therefore, when he thinks of you, He sees you as a person of great value, of eternal worth. And He wants you to think of others in the same way. He wants you to have the same mindset towards others as He does. And the good news is that since you have the mind of Christ, all you need now is to learn how to think like Jesus.

So, then, How can we begin to think like Jesus? That’s what we’re about to see in the thought process that led Jesus to leave heaven and become one of us. In the process we are going to see three decisions Jesus made in coming to be with us that show us how Jesus thinks. Here’s the first one:

1. He emptied Himself of His Divine Advantages
Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage. Phil. 2:5b-6 These verses describe the status of Jesus as He existed before the creation of the world. There never was a time when Jesus didn’t exist. He has no point of origin. He is and has always been the Alpha and the Omega. John says of Jesus in his Gospel: “He was with God in the beginning John 1:2 Jesus has always existed as God. Therefore, before becoming one of us, Jesus was fully divine in every way… and He still is.

But in coming to us, Jesus did not think that His privileged status as God as something to be used for His advantage. He didn’t come to be one of us to get anything from us. Instead, He emptied Himself of all His divine advantages, privileges and rights, and made Himself nothing, by taking the form of a servant – a slave. You see the defining characteristic of a slave is that they have no status, they have no advantages. A slave has no power, no rights, nothing. A slave is essentially a nobody. So then, Jesus emptied Himself of every advantage He had as God; to become a nobody so He might serve everybody.

THAT IS NOT HOW we have been taught to think. We’ve been told all our lives to do whatever it takes to get ahead, to get an edge. We’ve been told to look out for number one. Use whatever means possible to come out on top. Get a good education. Make good connections. Work hard. Be Smart. Invest shrewdly. Take any and every advantage you can get. It’s all about get, get, get!

But that’s not the mindset of Jesus. Jesus who was the greatest somebody became a nobody so he could serve everybody. He emptied Himself so he could put others ahead of himself. He emptied Himself of all His rights, privileges and power as God. Therefore, when he came to us, he didn’t need to waste any energy on himself. He never thought, “What’s in it for me?” He never worried about how others might perceive Him. He was freed from trying to be somebody so he could serve anybody.

So, the question you may be asking is this: How do we develop this way of thinking? Jesus’ way of thinking? By dying to self. When you die to self, you give up your right to be somebody. You can’t have the mind of Christ if you are always looking out for yourself. But isn’t that what we’ve been taught all our lives? We’ve been taught to be responsible. We’ve been taught to climb the ladder of success. We’ve been schooled to pursue the American Dream. The only who teaches us to die to self and serve others is Jesus. So, I’ll be the first to admit that dying to self is a foreign concept to us. In fact, I would admit, that without Christ, we can’t do this. That without Christ, none of us would even try.

But the more we follow Jesus, the more we learn from Jesus, the more we can learn to die to self. That’s why in the verses that precede the example of Jesus, we are told “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.” Philippians 2:3 That’s what Jesus did. But how was He able to live this way? How was He able stop living for self, and start living for others? Well, that’s what we see next in this text:

2. He Emptied Himself by Taking on the Nature of a Servant He emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:7 When Jesus was born into this world, he didn’t take on the form of just a human, but of a slave. Serving wasn’t just “second nature” to Jesus. It was His nature. It was the nature that he added to His divine nature. And He went far beyond any of us in any act of service. He made servanthood his essential mission in life. He himself said this: “For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many Mark 10:45. Therefore, Jesus’ glory and divinity were veiled (obscured) by his humanity and the servant nature he added to himself. Yet the whole time he lived among us, Jesus never ceased to be God.

This by the way, is why so many people had trouble recognizing Jesus as God. For when people saw Jesus, all they saw was a man. In fact, if it were not for the testimony of Scripture, of His own words and works, very few people would have believed that He was God. There was no special aura or glow about Him that tipped people off that He was the divine Son of God. As Isaiah predicted: He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. Isaiah 53:2 He was truly: “veiled in flesh the Godhead see.”

Now, to help us understand how Jesus emptied himself by taking on the nature of a servant, I want to tell you about a guy named Andrew Martinez. Andrew was a caddy on the PGA Tour for a long time for many champion golfers. Andrew is well known among his friends. He’s intelligent and athletic. He is, in his own right, a good golfer. He’s a better tennis player; and he’s an even better backgammon player. Andrew is a somebody in his own right… But on occasion he makes a transition from Andrew, the somebody, to Andrew, the caddy. He’s gets out of his car, walks into the clubhouse and reappears in white overalls. He has emptied himself by taking on the form of a caddy. Now, he’s still Andrew – athletic, golfer, intelligent. He’s still Andrew in all of his essence as Andrew, but he has emptied himself. And here we see that it is by an addition that he makes himself nothing. He has not ceased to be who he is. But by wearing the overalls he constitutes a completely different entity. He who is a somebody in his own right has become a nobody in order to serve his touring pro and carry his clubs.

This is what Jesus did. Jesus didn’t stop being God by taking on the nature of a servant. And God wants you to understand that you don’t stop being you so you can serve like Jesus. He created you as you, with your unique personality. He wired your heart for love, joy and life to the full. He doesn’t ask you to cast aside who you are. He simply wants you to think like Jesus: that you are on a mission to serve others, and it’s not your mission in life to have others to serve you.

And the good news, is that you don’t have to pour yourself into a serving uniform to do this. You just need to put on Jesus: to empty yourself of self, and let the Christ in you, guide you, move you, and empower you to see everyone as someone Jesus wants you to serve. Now what’s so great is that God has already put His servant nature in you. Just as you have the mind of Christ, if Christ is in you, you have the servant nature of Christ as well. You just need to recognize that He wants to use your hands to comfort others, to use your ears to listen to others, to use your heart to empathize with others, and to use your presence to be with others when they need you. That’s what Jesus did for us. He came to serve and give His life away for the sake of others. And when we do the same, we will literally “flesh out” the new way of life Jesus has called us to live with one another. And when we live like this our lives will be wrapped in humility, just like His. Which leads us to the final decision Jesus made to reveal to us that He was wrapped in complete humility from birth. And what was that?

3. He Humbled Himself by Obeying the Father
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Philippians 2:8 Here we see why Jesus did all he did in setting aside the advantages of His deity and taking on the nature of a servant: He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross.

When Jesus took on a human body, he then humbled Himself to accomplish that task for which He had come – to die for sinful humanity in order that they might have eternal life. All humans must die, but Jesus, as the divine Son, accepted death in obedience to the Father’s will. This does not mean that he was obedient “to death” as if death had any power over him; instead, Jesus obeyed the will of God to the point of death. So, our question is…

Why did Jesus obey the will of God to the point of death? The answer is simple: Jesus loved the Father. And His love for the Father is revealed in His willingness to totally submit to the Father’s will. So, much so, that everything Jesus did, from letting go of all his rights, privileges and power, to taking on the form of a servant, by taking on human flesh and living among us, to laying down His life on the cross and dying for our sins – everything Jesus did was out of His love for His Father. This was Jesus’ mindset. This was the core motivating factor behind all that Jesus did. We see this throughout his ministry. In the gospel of John, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself, He can only do what He sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” John 5:19 Jesus did only what the Father showed Him to do. He didn’t go and do His own thing. He wanted to do what the Father wanted Him to do. That’s humility.

A few verses later Jesus said, “For I have not come down from heaven to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me.” John 6:38 Jesus came to be with us, to serve us and to die for us, because that’s what the Father wanted Him to do. All of Jesus’ life among us was shaped by His desire to obey the Father’s will. That’s humility.

And then two chapters later, Jesus confessed: “I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The One who sent me is with me; He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him.” John 8:28-29 Again, the whole mindset of Jesus had one purpose: to honor the Father, to glorify God, to please the One who sent Him. That’s the mindset that allowed Jesus to endure the accusations of the religious leaders who falsely accused him of blasphemy. That’s the mindset that helped him endure being struck in the face, being spit upon, ridiculed and whipped. And that’s the mindset that helped him endure having his hands and feet nailed to the cross and take upon himself the sin of the world and lay down His life for you and me.

Jesus Christ truly humbled himself when He became obedient to the Father and obeyed Him all the way to death on the cross. Jesus, who was fully God and fully human, did not have to die as is common to all of sinful humanity. But here, we see that He chose to die an act of obedience to the Father. “Not my will, but yours be done” was Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before His death. That’s humility.

And so, we read: Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11

That’s who we see at Christmas. That’s who we see when we look at this babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. We see Jesus, the name above every name, who came to us wrapped in humility, so that we might worship Him and give God the glory for giving us Jesus.

So let us exalt the name of Jesus this Christmas.
And may we have serve one another like He served us.