The Healing Word

Guest (Male): How do I humble myself? How did God humble himself? Well, this passage pulls back the veil and gives us a brief look at timeless into time, eternal into temporal, infinite into definite. How do you put that in language? Show me the preacher or the theologian that could add to that or define that.

Today, on a very special edition of The Healing Word, Pastor Morris is going to attempt to define perfect love by following the story of Jesus before His birth, when He entered this world, His ministry while here, and His ultimate sacrifice on the cross. Don't miss a minute of today's message, Love Was When.

Jack Morris: I come to this passage of scripture this morning with care and reverence. I must confess, I do not want to preach this sermon. It is so transcending, it is so high, it is so holy, it is so divine, it is so filled with deity. What can I say? But read it.

I started looking at the original languages and the Greek this and the Greek that, and every word has several Greek words to it. And this passage of scripture, this passage of scripture is not found or anything like it in the entire Bible. The entire Bible. Now we take Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Those passages are repeated and there's information in every one of those books that are basically the same. But there is nothing, nothing. And unless the Lord in some special way anoints your thinking today, this is going to be one of the shortest, driest sermons you've ever heard because I don't know what to say about it. I don't know how to add anything to it. I don't know how to make it plainer or clearer. It's Jesus walking in history. It's Jesus. So I come with reverence and care.

Verse eight says, listen, "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Does that say anything to you or to me? "And being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself." How do you look like a man when you are the almighty maker of heaven and of the earth?

You are omnipotent. How do you look like a man? And how does God humble himself? How does anybody humble themselves? But that's what it's about. Verse five says, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." So how do I humble myself? How did God humble himself?

Well, this passage pulls back the veil and gives us a brief look at timeless into time, eternal into temporal, infinite into definite. How do you put that in language? Show me the preacher or the theologian that could add to that or define that. We're going to look at Jesus before Bethlehem. We're going to look at Jesus after he was born in Bethlehem, and we're going to look at Jesus after Bethlehem.

Look at verse six. "Who?" Jesus. It's Jesus. It's all about Jesus. Friend, whatever you do and if it isn't about Jesus, no matter how good and wonderful and helpful it is... "Who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped."

The nature of God. Tell me about the nature of God. What is God made of? Jesus was made of the same stuff. But what can I say about it? I could talk to you about the nature of man. I'm made in the nature of my father and mother. But the nature of God, what can I say about that?

I've never seen the nature of God. No man has ever seen God and lived. So I can't say much about it, other than that Jesus was in the very nature of God. And then look, the next line says that he did not consider equality with God. He was equal with God.

What does that mean being equal with God? Come on, tell me about it. Equality with God. He was equal with God. But the scripture goes on to say, "Something to be grasped." He wasn't going to hold on to that nature. He wasn't going to hold on to that equality. He wasn't going to grasp it and hold on to it.

Friend, he gave it up. He surrendered it. He humbled himself. Why? For sinners. We talk about a lot of things. And I do about the church and services and Sunday school and youth and choirs and songs and hymns. I talk a lot about things like this. But let's talk about Jesus. If it weren't for Jesus, we'd have nothing. Nothing, no hope at all whatsoever.

But being in the very nature of God, there's God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, did not consider equality with God. When he looked at you, he said, "You are more important." Who would make themselves nothing for somebody else? Verse five says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," who made himself nothing.

Another translation says he emptied himself, like you take a glass of water and you just empty it out. He emptied himself of the prerogatives of God, of the manner of God, of the deity of God. Whatever was there, he emptied himself. I don't understand why. Well, I know it was love, but even then I'm talking about things that I don't know very much about.

He emptied himself, made himself nothing. Now, taking the very nature of a servant, meaning a slave. He came to be your slave, my slave, to serve us, to care for us. What kind of God is this that we're talking about, singing about, praying about? What kind of God is this? Jesus comes to reveal him to us.

Taking the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. He came to look like you. He looked like God throughout all eternity, but now he looks like you. He looks like me. He looks like us. Well, here's the one who stood with the Father and the Holy Spirit and spoke worlds into existence.

There was nothing but chaos, Genesis chapter one says. And this one who spoke the planets into existence, who spoke earth into existence, this one made himself nothing. Listen, anybody that can speak a word and something happens, he didn't make it, he spoke it. And he's speaking today.

And here it is, friend, here it is. Speaking worlds into existence, makes himself nothing. Well, he comes to earth, one of the smallest planets, but one of the planets where, I don't know whether there's anybody else out there or not. I seem to feel that with all the planets there are, there are people out there somewhere, whether they're called people or not.

But this is the planet that sinned. And the planet sinned because you sinned. The planet was cursed because you and I brought a curse upon the earth. We did some of the most ugly things and we inherited that nature that our parents did. We inherited that nature and we perpetuated that sin.

We have the nature of sinners, but Jesus came to give us the nature of God. Think about it. Holy Spirit, open our understanding to this truth. Notice he comes, verse eight, "And being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself." Those three words, "He humbled."

Friends, we don't like humility. We like superiority. We like sermons that say, "Hey, you're somebody, reach for the stars, you can do it, you can make it." We're to serve one another and to love one another and God forbid those that would cause anything other than love to exist, who would speak any words other than love.

If anyone is speaking any words other than love, tearing somebody's character down, that person does not, does not, does not have the nature of Christ. You have the nature of sin, the nature you were born with, the nature of Adam and Eve after they sinned that has been passed down.

Friend, I'm praying today for the Holy Spirit to reveal himself to us. And I believe he is. I believe he is talking to us. Now, angels stood speechless as Jesus entered the womb of a little girl. The man that spoke worlds into existence enters a young girl's womb. Can you believe that?

That sort of just, a substance entered her womb. That substance became a fetus. That substance became a baby. That little baby said, "Let there be light," and there was light. "Let dry land appear," and on and on it goes into all of that.

But the angels stood speechless as he entered the virgin's womb. And then with bowed head, talking about the angels, with bowed head and veiled faces, they watched him come out of her womb. He humbled himself. How much lower could he get? He humbled himself. And they saw a little tiny baby crying.

Here is almighty God. Reverently they watched. Think about it. Angels watched as their creator was being born. Now I'm going to have to say that one again. The one that created them, they watched that creator being born. Hey, it's like you watching your parents being born.

Oh God, help me to get this scripture. Get a hold of me today. Let this word get a hold of me. Love was when God became a man. Love was when Jesus walked in history. Love was when God was nailed to bleed and die to reach a sinner such as I, to love me. Jesus after Bethlehem.

The scripture says in verse eight again, "And being found in appearance as a man." He became a man. God who is omnipresent became a man. He humbled himself. Watch him now. Watch him now as he comes down. Oh, he comes down more. He didn't just become a man.

He's coming down even beyond that. But for just a passing moment, he was in his hometown in Nazareth. He looked like a man. He was very ordinary and they saw him in the synagogue. That's where Christians are supposed to be, with other Christians. Well, they weren't called Christians at that time. These were Jewish people on the Sabbath.

And Jesus was teaching and healing and those people scratched their head. They said, "Hey, is not this the carpenter's son? Isn't this the boy that went to synagogue school with my boy and daughter? Don't we know his dad's name is Joseph, his mother's name is Mary?" And then they named his brothers and they said of his sisters, "He just looked like us."

You wouldn't have recognized him and neither would I. They didn't recognize him. Who is this person with all this wisdom? The scripture says he humbled himself and became a man in the appearance of a man. Human limitations. He gave it up. He gave it all up.

Friend, what are you giving up for Jesus? You only have one life. Give it to him. Give it to him and you'll have that life forever. Give that life to him. It passes so quickly, life does. He gave up everything for you and me. What a savior, so divine. Human limitations.

Oh, but he has to, he comes down even more. He came down to a man and now he comes down to being a servant. Verse seven says, "But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant." Not the nature of God, he gave up the nature of God to get in that little girl's womb. But now he's got your nature, the nature of man, my nature.

Angels bowing their heads. Now he is a servant. He was equal to the Father, one with the Father. He is a servant. Did you hear me say he was a slave? Your slave. He gets down and washes the disciples' feet. Almighty God washing dirty feet. Oh, but I can't stop there.

He becomes a man. He becomes a slave, a foot washer. But now he goes down further, down, down, down. Watch him stoop. He keeps stooping. He's not finished stooping. He becomes a curse. You can't get any lower than that. Galatians chapter three, verse 13 says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse by himself becoming a curse."

The almighty God drank the cup of sin in Gethsemane. He became a curse. Why, Jesus? Father, are we that important to you that he would become a curse? Galatians 3:13, I'll say it again, I'll read it again. "Christ redeemed us from the curse." He took the curse off of you and put it on himself by becoming a curse for us.

Down from his glory, my God and savior came, and Jesus was his name. What condescension, bringing us redemption. The great creator became my savior. Perhaps there's a person here this morning or one by streaming, somebody that is streaming, on how you want to know this savior.

Certainly he wants to know you. And if you have a desire to know him, even that desire he gave you and put within your heart. He's calling you to himself. To just bow before him and ask him to come into your heart, forgive you of your sins, ask him for strength to live the Christian life from this day forward.

You are exchanging your human nature for a divine, holy Christian nature. The miracle of God's grace is taking place in your heart as you pray. So in homes by the hundreds, and in this sanctuary, we bow. Christian, if you feel convicted or if there's a guilt feeling, he put that guilt feeling there to get you back to himself.

That's his call to you. You're feeling guilt because your human nature has surfaced and you did some human things that were not Christian. Ask God to forgive you. Oh, he stands ready. In a moment, it'll be gone. You have but to ask. He has given himself, his heart, his life.

He became a man. He became a man. He became a servant. He became a curse to get you and me out of the domain of sin and to go to a prepared place in heaven when this life is over. Tell me what more, what more could Jesus do? Thank you, Father God, for giving us your Son.

You gave your all. The Holy Spirit brought him to us. The Holy Spirit is establishing him, putting him into our hearts, into our lives, into our homes, into our families, into our marriages. He comes in grace and in love, and we receive him. Thank you for your mercy and grace. We give you praise. We give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Guest (Male): It's so reassuring to know the love that God has for us, a love with no end that will never cease. Have you personally experienced his wonderful love? I invite you to reach out to Jesus right now with thankfulness and praise, and ask him to fill you with himself.

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