St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon For Palm Sunday – March 20^th, 2005

Dear Children of God,

How many of you can remember some of your first jobs? One thing I can remember as I think back to some of these first jobs is that they were not the best jobs in the entire world. One of my first jobs was working in a spice store. My job was to put the spices into 3 oz. packages. By the end of the day I smelled like 50 different spices all mixed into one giant smell. I had to wash my clothes as soon as I walked in the house, because the smell would fill the whole house. One of my other jobs was working for a Landscape company. My job was to mow (on foot I will let you know) around 30 lawns a day. We also had a mall like East Towne mall that I had to mow edge and trim all on foot. Boy was I tired when I got home!. Whether it was a job like these or any other job that you had in the past or that you may presently have, you realize that no matter how tough a job may be, we still need to work at it with all our effort.

As we look at the work that Jesus our Lord and Savior had accomplish , we soon begin to realize that his work of saving the world from its sin was outwardly not very appealing. Jesus knew that he would have to face every temptation that we had faced, but he could never fall into sin. Jesus knew that he would had have to suffer at the hands of those who hated him, yet he could not lash out at them. Jesus knew that he would have to face the very depths of hell to free us from the devil’s hands all by himself. It took our humble Lord and Savior to do this work without complaint as he came to humble himself for us so that we might have eternal life. It is this humble act of service by our Lord and Savior that will serve as our theme for this morning:

Paul was a prisoner when he wrote the words of this letter. And yet, the letter is a fine example of Christian joy at its best and fullest. Indeed, as is easy to see when you read it, this book of the Bible overflows with joy. As a redeemed child of God, the Apostle Paul expresses a joy that nothing in this world can take from him, a joy that glows just as brightly even when you outwardly are facing troubles. This joy is the supreme joy that comes from knowing that all sins are forgiven through the Savior. In this letter there are nearly twenty references to joy and rejoicing, each of which gives weight to Paul’s obvious theme, "Rejoice!"

The up-beat, happy tone of the letter reflects Paul’s special love for the people of Philippi. Paul himself founded the church and served there, and he enjoyed the privilege of seeing his work bear fruit for the Lord. Undoubtedly, the Philippians also held Paul in great esteem. This is evident from the special gifts they sent him and from their sending of Epaphroditus, who served Paul and was to bring his letter to the people of Philippi. Although Paul voices concerns over a number of matters that need attention and improvement within the congregation, it is clear that Paul is more interested in encouraging and warning than in harshly scolding them. For the most part these are people who were making an effort to live their lives for Christ.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus." Paul wants the Philippians to be developing and maintaining a Christ-like humility. The perfect humility of Jesus himself is to be their model. But before we move too far I want to remind everyone that just trying to be like Jesus is not exactly what these words mean. Too many people in this world think that trying as hard as possible to be like Jesus is what makes God happy. Too many people lead their lives with one goal in mind and that is make God happy by living as closely as humanly possible to how Jesus would have lived. While this can be understood correctly, we need to realize that living as Jesus would have lived will in no way draw us closer to heaven or God’s grace. There is not a person in this building who has even been close to living as Jesus lived. That is why we want it to be perfectly clear that this doesn’t mean that we are in any way earning God’! s favor or that God will see how hard we are trying to be like him and love us more. And above all we need to realize that it is only because of the grace and mercy of Jesus that we are able to live for our Lord and Savior. The gospel message of Jesus is what motivates and empowers us to serve our Lord and Savior.

So what is this Gospel message. Paul begins to lay it out for us by writing this about Jesus, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped — but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." Jesus is God. Jesus demonstrated that he was God as he fed the 5000, healed the blind and the deaf, raised the dead, and preached the gospel with authority that only God himself has. He was able to read and to judge the thoughts of men. He prophesied his death and resurrection and his return on the Judgment Day. Yet Paul goes on to tell us that Jesus Christ, although he was in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God "something to be grasped". He did not set up an earthly throne or glorify himself during his ministry. The title by which he referred to himself consistently was "the Son of Man."

As a dad with 4 sons, there have been ample opportunities to roughhouse with my boys. I remember those many times, where my sons would take their turn trying to beat dad. They would wrestle with all their might trying to pin you to ground. I think that deep down they actually thought they were strong enough to win the battle. Little did they know that I wasn’t using all my strength. I was only using as much of my strength as I needed.

In the same way our Lord and Savior didn’t use all of his dine nature while he was on this earth. Far from being interested in finding ways to seek glory for himself, Jesus "made himself nothing," which literally means that he "emptied" himself. He did not use all his divine powers for that short time that he was on this earth. Even though at times some of the things he did showed his divine powers, he used them, not to exercise lordship over men, but to serve. He took the form of a servant, "made in human likeness." His appearance reflected his true humanity, while his works of service reflected his divine love and mercy. He had come to be our perfect substitute, the Sin-Bearer who would die in our place on the cross.

This is the mystery of our Lord that we will never be able to understand. How could Jesus who was the very Son of God, be 100% human? This just doesn’t make sense. But it is exactly what the Bible tells us is true. This is the perfect Savior that would come into this world to save us from the hands of the devil. But his humility doesn’t stop with the very fact that he took the form of a human being. "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!" Christ’s true humanity was nowhere more apparent than it was in his death. The depth of Christ’s humiliation is seen particularly in the mode of his death, which Paul certainly wants to emphasize here. Death by crucifixion was recognized as the most humbling deaths in the entire world.

In this verse again we come face-to-face with the greatest of mysteries, far beyond our human comprehension. Our Lord is the God-Man. Out of love for us sinners the God-Man died — and not just any death, but the most shameful of deaths; and not for his sins, for he had none, but rather, for ours. When we try to unravel these mysteries and attempt to make them intellectually acceptable, they invariably end up adding to subtracting from what the Word actually says. The doctrine of the Trinity, Jesus becoming fully human, and Jesus becoming our Substitute are parts of the Bible that we hold on to only by the faith that the Holy Spirit has worked in our hearts.

And just in case we don’t think that Jesus really was the Son of God, Paul tells us that Jesus didn’t remain just a man on this earth. He took hold of the full use of his divine powers as he ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God.. Paul puts it this way, "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 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." In theses verses we hear of the Father’s approval of the work of redemption that his Son undertook for us sinners. Jesus suffered all, including the death of the cross, and he received the full approval of his Father for that completed work. This stamp of approval includes giving the victorious Savior the name that is above every name—not just "a" name, but "the" name, which enc! ompasses the entire revelation that God has made concerning himself in the gospel of his Son. Jesus Christ is the highest of all names, for it is the only name "by which we must be saved."

This is the motivation that the Lord fills us with. Jesus did all of this for us. Our entire lives on this earth are to be spent in humble and grateful service to the Savior who has given us everything. The humility of Jesus is to be our pattern. His lowliness was genuine. He was willing to undergo suffering and death — even the death of the cross — to redeem us unworthy sinners. It is this humble service that we need to remember as we live on this earth. Christian service is not to be self-seeking or self-glorifying. Instead, it is designed to reflect the selfless love of the Lord himself. The problem and difficulty is that this kind of selfless service is, of course, contrary to our sinful human nature. It runs contrary to the will, the opinions and the wisdom of the world around us. Genuine selflessness is even considered foolishness by the world. In Jesus we find both the pattern for selfless service and the reason to follow that pattern. The reason is found in ! the salvation he has provided for each of us. And we are happy to have the opportunity to thank the Savior for what he did for us.

So how is our humble service to the Lord coming? Do our lives and our words show the mercy and love that our in our hearts through faith? Are willing to serve others in humbleness or does our pride get in the way? How often have we said or maybe thought that certain activities and things are beneath us? How often have we forgotten that there are many opportunities to serve others and our Lord and savior while on this earth? It ids at times like this that we need to realize that as redeemed children of God we will use every opportunity that God puts before us to humble help and Savior others.