In our series, “Jesus is the real superman” – we’ve been trying to show you that Bible illustrates Jesus is the Hero of every story
Phil 2:5-11 (main text)
When we’re talking about this amazing God that we serve we need to know that He’s not some distant being uninterested, indifferent, or disconnected with you.
But He is so in love with who you are that He sent His son into this world. And I love the vehicle in which he came; being born as a baby boy. Often called the incarnation of the Christ. Incarnation literally means “to make flesh”. See, “Christ” isn’t Jesus’ last name – but actually means Messiah/Anointed/Chosen One – – – comes from the Greek Christos or Hebrew Mashiach. The chosen one becomes flesh.
Now to become something, you have to already be something.
John 1:1 tells us that Jesus always will and always has – – existed as part of the 3 person God head
—He actually shows up in the OT in different places, sometimes referred to as “an angel of the Lord”
(verse 7) says ‘He was born in the likeness of man’
Born to the virgin Mary (highly important since Sin is passed through the Father) he was born just like us in every single way; except that he was born without any sin. I’ve heard a ton of pastor’s stress the deity of Jesus (which rightly so), but I haven’t heard nearly as much addressing the humanity of Jesus. What it does for us is builds a common ground. To some degree, that’s what the gospel is about, common ground. Jesus levels the playing field through His death in that every place/time/every person/all creation would become equal in the ability to gain redemption through His death. And if that’s not enough for you, the incarnation of Jesus also gives us a clear reference point that EVERYTHING we as human beings go through, OUR GOD experienced also.
The God-man Jesus can relate to you.
He can relate to me.
He can relate to every single person in every single situation…because He has been there.
Jesus was Fully God, but He was/is also Fully man
Jesus had to grow up. LUKE chapter 2 verse 52 says Jesus, “Grew in wisdom and stature and favor, with men and God.” Jesus grew physically AND spiritually, in wisdom, AND in stature. He grew – – in favor with God AND people.
Jesus asked a lot of questions. – – ever notice that? Here’s something for you to think about: This idea that as Jesus was growing up He didn’t know everything. Are you freaking out yet?! He was fully God, but He was also FULLLYYY MAN
——look at verses 6-7 right “who, though he was in the form of God (talking about prior to Jesus being born He the Son was with the Father as the exact imprint of the nature of God – – Colossians 1:15 takes it further saying, “Jesus is the visible expression of God’s invisible glory), did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped (that can be a hard part to wrestle with because of the wordage, but it’s saying Jesus wasn’t holding onto this part of His nature as God with a clinched fist saying to the Father, “sorry not doing that, not going to earth as a baby”), but emptied himself, by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Do you see the contrast Paul makes? – – God to servant, King to peasant, from ruling/reigning/omniscient/omnipresent/omnipowerful/soverign GOD to man. He takes on the form of you and me.
Following Jesus isn’t about how good or how much you do, but it’s about what Christ has already done.
2 ways to look at verse 7
(1) What Jesus did was set aside (or metaphorically empty Himself) for a period of time His status and privilege as God and lived on this earth as man.
(2) Jesus didn’t empty himself OF anything; in that He ceased to be God.
Jesus is our perfect example of infiltrating culture with the gospel all the while never crossing a line into sin. You may have heard us say, “We’ll do everything short of sin to reach the lost”, it’s not our method we came up with, it’s Jesus’. On some occasions even Jesus got stressed out. The Bible says over and over that, “He was astonished” = = both at the faith of one and the lack of faith of others.
He looked like your very average guy, very typical, very unnoticeable, wasn’t getting a double take. We don’t know exactly what He looked like, but it wasn’t Brad Pitt. Isaiah 53:2 says, “had no beauty or majesty to attracts us to Him”. NO-THING in His appearance that we should desire Him.
But WE DO KNOW
-He was a carpenter who spent the first 30 years of His life swinging a hammer
-Had callouses on His hands
-He walked a lot preaching/teaching – – was probably in decent shape
-He looked like your very normal, very typical construction worker.
-He got hungry
-He got thirsty
-He was sick and sore and stressed
-He was tempted but never sinned
-Jesus did not take the Nazarite vow (which Samson did in Numbers 6) which means you don’t cut your hair, and you never consume alcohol. Some people confuse this, and believe He didn’t drink and He had long hair; neither of those are true.
And the error we’ll make reading this text from Phil.2 is bi-fold: (1) We either make too little of Him as man (2) or we make too little of Him as God.
And the truth is that He’s both. The God-man. If someone asks you: Is Jesus God or man, your answer should be: YES!
Additional texts: Colossians 2:9 Hebrews 2:17-18