Have you ever given up something for the benefit of someone else?
Guys, maybe you wanted to watch the game but to keep the peace you went shopping or to a movie with your spouse?
Or ladies, have you maybe wanted to sleep but you gave that up to take care of your family’s needs?
We have all, at some point, given up something for the benefit of those we love, placing their needs or wants above our own.
And, maybe even begrudgingly.. Yes, I’m sure there’s some of you, who have reminded those they have it up for, what a great sacrifice they’ve made, just for them! Often as leverage
Come on, let’s be honest with each other, we’ve all done it!
Yes, I’ve been just as guilty as the next guy! No sense in denying it,
God knows the truth! And so does your spouse and family!
I want to talk about the Deity of Christ, and what He sacrificed for us, the ones He loved.
Our Lord Jesus emphasized that those who would be known as great in the Kingdom of God would be servants. It's our attitude that is most important. As followers of Christ, we must have an attitude of serving; the desire to serve and give. One of the greatest example of this outside of Jesus Himself, was the apostle Paul. Though he had all the credentials of position and authority, he considered himself the least of all the saints and a servant of all.
Copyright © 2019 All Rights Reserved
Brian Monzon Ministries
Guys, maybe you wanted to watch the game but to keep the peace you went shopping or to a movie with your spouse?
Or ladies, have you maybe wanted to sleep but you gave that up to take care of your family’s needs?
We have all, at some point, given up something for the benefit of those we love, placing their needs or wants above our own.
And, maybe even begrudgingly.. Yes, I’m sure there’s some of you, who have reminded those they have it up for, what a great sacrifice they’ve made, just for them! Often as leverage
Come on, let’s be honest with each other, we’ve all done it!
Yes, I’ve been just as guilty as the next guy! No sense in denying it,
God knows the truth! And so does your spouse and family!
I want to talk about the Deity of Christ, and what He sacrificed for us, the ones He loved.
Our Lord Jesus emphasized that those who would be known as great in the Kingdom of God would be servants. It's our attitude that is most important. As followers of Christ, we must have an attitude of serving; the desire to serve and give. One of the greatest example of this outside of Jesus Himself, was the apostle Paul. Though he had all the credentials of position and authority, he considered himself the least of all the saints and a servant of all.
When Paul says in the text “did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,”
Philippians 2:6. It means He did not grasp or hold onto the outer manifestation of His deity. He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, or something to hold on to at all cost.
In order that we may try to comprehend this, we must first know that Christ surrendered all that which He had loved, in order that He may serve those whom He loved!
When Christ did not esteem His equality with God as a possession of prize, He did not look “on his own things”
Philippians 2:4, but instead He viewed “the things of others,” namely the sinful plight of humanity. He did not contemplate what His gain would be, but what He could gain for others
It’s critical that we must not miss our role in all of this, Jesus made a choice to become a servant!
“He made Himself of no reputation,” Philippians 2:7. Verse 8 says “He humbled Himself.”
To make this a bit clearer, if the only person, in all the world who ever had the right to assert His rights waived them, for the benefit of others, then you and I can most certainly do the same!
Jesus was by His very nature God, but Scripture tells us He “made Himself of no reputation.” In some versions, it says “He emptied Himself.” The word emptied in the Greek, kenoΘ means “to deprive something of its proper place and use.” Jesus stripped Himself of all privilege!
Many have attempted to explain the self-emptying of Christ, by saying He laid aside His deity. But anyone who knows the Scriptures knows that His self-emptying was diminishing His deity. He was not diminishing His deity. Deity, once diminished, is no longer deity!
Christ did not empty Himself of His divine nature! He continued to be the Son of God, He gave up His environment of glory. He voluntarily surrendered the independent exercise of His divine attributes. He never ceased to possess them!
Christ placed Himself under the authority of God the Father and under the control of the Holy Spirit. There is no record of Jesus having used these divine attributes in His first thirty years of human existence.
But when the Spirit came upon Him at His baptism, He began to demonstrate these powerful attributes.
Probably one of the most overlooked aspects of our Lord’s coming to earth, is the restriction placed upon His presence! When we read the text, “taking on the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men,” do we really understand its meaning?
He gave up His unbounded universal
freedom, instead He became confined to a human body, that was confined
to a country no larger than Palestine. When we’re told He took the form
of a bondservant, He was in the form of God taking upon Himself the form
of a bondservant!
The servanthood of Jesus Christ was totally authentic in substance and reality!
Brian Monzon Ministries