I, and I’m confident many of you, love Christmas. Christmas is the time of year we’ve always looked forward to ever since we were kids, it was always wondering two things, when’s my birthday, and when’s Christmas. When you get a little older of course many things change. Your birthday isn’t as exciting because at some point you just keep turning 32 over and over again, I know some of you have been 32 for about 40 years. The reasons for loving Christmas hopefully change too, especially when you realize parts that are the same as your day job: You do all the work and some guy in a suit gets all the credit. As a parent, your favorite carol becomes Silent Night.
But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to love Christmas because of what we’re celebrating about the message of the Gospel and that Christmas marks the beginning of the Greatest Act of Humility in All of the History of the Universe.
I want to start this afternoon with two quick stories that have one thing in common:
- From North by Northeast - Walter Cronkite recalls the following incident: Sailing back down the Mystic River in Connecticut and following the channel's tricky turns through an expanse of shallow water, I am reminded of the time a boatload of young people sped past us here, its occupants shouting and waving their arms. I waved back a cheery greeting and my wife said, "Do you know what they were shouting?" "Why, it was 'Hello, Walter,'" I replied. "No," she said. "They were shouting, "Low water, Low water.'" Such are the pitfalls of fame's egotism.
- From Warren Wiersbe - Hudson Taylor was scheduled to speak at a Large Presbyterian church in Melbourne, Australia. The moderator of the service introduced the missionary in eloquent and glowing terms. He told the large congregation all that Taylor had accomplished in China, and then presented him as "our illustrious guest." Taylor stood quietly for a moment, and then opened his message by saying, "Dear friends, I am the little servant of an illustrious Master."
Did you catch what these two stories have in common? Humility. The first one had an absence, the second had abundance.
- What is humility?
- Merriam-Webster - the quality or state of not thinking you are better than other people
- Like many things in life, like the tires on your car, you may not recognize humility right away when it’s there, but you notice it right away when it’s absent.
- Why is humility important to God?
- In the words that God has spoken, he has made it abundantly clear to us, His creation, that humility is important. From the Old Testament, to Jesus and the apostles:
- Psalm 25:9 - He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
- Matthew 18:4 - Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
- 1 Peter 5:6 - Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you
- In the words that God has spoken, he has made it abundantly clear to us, His creation, that humility is important. From the Old Testament, to Jesus and the apostles:
But why is humility so important? You can’t receive what you don’t truly understand that you need. I have a realization about this every year usually by New Year or the first week of January, when something comes up (a tool or book) and I think if I thought about this sooner, I could have asked for this for Christmas.
In order to understand our need for God, we need humility. We have to truly understand that we have a need that no matter how great we may be in our own mind or in reality (because as the two stories show, those can be two different things) we cannot fill.
We have a record of the first people to show a lack of humility (a.k.a. pride) in Genesis 3. Before that time, humanity lived humbly in understanding our need for God, but then a false promise was held out that said, “you don’t really need God, you can be God.” Humanity believed this false promise, and in an act of deception, pride and defiance, the humility that once characterized our relationship with God was marred by the thing we call sin, or pride. The effects of this are a daily part of our reality.
A prideful heart that refuses humility toward God is the cause of hurt and suffering because the truth that is rarely if ever understood is that not everyone gets to be God. If you’re god, then I can’t be god because I can’t do or say anything that would offend you as god, without feeling your wrath.
This is lived out before us every single day, when you’re going for that parking spot and someone gets in there before you and you get more upset about it than you should, your god-ness has been offended. When the dream that you had for your future evaporates like mist, and the seed of bitterness takes root in your heart, your god-ness has been offended. When you get that phone call with news that you really didn’t want to hear, and that anger starts kindling inside the pit of your stomach and you’re thinking of how to get even, your god-ness has been offended. Just so you know I’m not pointing the finger, when I hear those restrictions that affect that church are changing again, I have gotten pretty upset about it and need to ask myself why I’m so worked up. Is it for the right reasons, or is it because of all the personal inconveniences that result.
This is part of the reason (among other things) why the reality of hell should be very troubling. Imagine a place where everyone believes, not subconsciously but by explicit choice, that they are god and where the common grace of God that we experience here, the hand of grace that holds back the floodgates of sin and pride is removed. The unrestricted pride and wrath of false gods getting even for eternity with absolutely no grace or mercy.
Maybe you didn’t come to a Christmas message to hear about hell, but the beauty of Christmas can’t really be fully understood or appreciated apart from it because the reality of the pride of humanity can only be counteracted by a display of humility that abundantly exceeds human pride.
And again it is not any exaggeration that Christmas marks the beginning of the Greatest Act of Humility in All of the History of the Universe. Jesus Christ, who eternally existed as real and true God, stepping down into the world that was created through Him in the humblest of circumstances.
What were the realities of Christ before Christmas?
- Before Christmas, Jesus had an eternal heavenly home with an intimate relationship in equal God-ness with the God the Father and God the Holy Spirit with perfect peace and joy.
- Before Christmas, Jesus had no need of anything material. No need for sleep, food, water, anything, he had the multitudes of angels at his disposal. He never experienced pain.
- Before Christmas, Jesus received all the glory and honor that was due to Him as God.
- Before Christmas, Jesus exercised all the rights of might, power, and sovereignty that are His as God.
Contrast these realities with the circumstances of Jesus’ coming at Christmas:
- Jesus Christmas Coming didn’t mean that He ceased to be God, but it meant leaving his perfect, eternal, heavenly home and the intimate relationship he enjoyed with the Father and the Spirit to the earth that was created through Him.
- Jesus Christmas Coming meant not only having material needs like sleep, shelter, food and water, but being born in humble circumstances, not in the palace of Jerusalem as the wise men assumed, but in a stable in Bethlehem to parents so poor that the only offering they could make at the temple were two pigeons.
- Jesus Christmas Coming meant an intentional veiling of his glory and instead of being honored by His creation, King Herod tries to have him killed and Joseph, Mary and Jesus have to run away from Israel until it’s safe to come back.
- Jesus Christmas Coming meant coming to the earth not with a display of his might, power and sovereignty that are his, but being born as a weak and defenseless baby.
These humble circumstances didn’t change very much in Jesus’ life experiences as He got older either:
- Jesus continued through life in humility and was essentially homeless, taking the form of a servant rather than Lord. He told a would-be disciple, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
- Jesus didn’t employ the multitudes of angels that were at his disposal to make his life more comfortable, even when He was tempted by the devil to do so.
- Jesus’ glory and honor was demonstrated by Him in the miracles he did, healing the blind, driving out evil spirits and calming the storm and yet he never received the glory and honor that was due to him from the people because they refused to humble themselves.
- Jesus humbled himself even further in this life that he, even though he has all might and power and sovereignty, in obedience to the Father and because he loved the world suffered and died on a cross in the ultimate display of shame and humiliation.
In the New Year we are going to begin a series through the book of Philippians, and in Philippians This Greatest Display of Humility Ever Known is summarized, 2:5-11 - Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
There you have it, the greatest act of humility the world has ever known that commenced on the first Christmas day, a humility that far exceeds and outweighs the pride of humanity. But Jesus’ humility wasn’t just for humilities sake, rather it was a humility with a purpose on behalf of humanity because Jesus’ humility in his death on the cross is the only antidote to the pride of humanity because His humility is the only event of humbleness that is greater than the event of human pride.
Jesus has come humbly and lived the way that we ought to live but also died the death that we ought to have died for our lack of humility before God and invites us to humble ourselves and call on Him and the believe in what he has accomplished on our behalf, to be forgiven for our pride. When we do so he sends the Holy Spirit that produces the fruits of humility within us.
And in the proper time just as Jesus was exalted after his humility on the cross, so too we will be exalted, not exalted by ourselves, but exalted by God.
So, in the humble spirit of Christmas, I invite you to humble yourselves before God and believe this message of Good News and if you have already believed it, to walk continually walk in it as Philippians again says to have the mind of Jesus Christ
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
From me to you, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year