Saint Luke Ev. Lutheran Church of Watertown

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Palm Sunday, April 4, 2004 Philippians 2:5-11

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in the 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. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! 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.

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

There is a m an in Thailand—they call the snake man! He is 34 years old. He is in The Guinness Book of World Records—for spending 7 days enclosed with a whole bunch of poisonous snakes! The snake man makes a living—doing shows—handling poisonous snakes. He touches them—holds them—lets then crawl on him. The other day the snake man was doing one of his shows—when a cobra snake bit him—bit him on the elbow—injecting him with its venom. The snake man drank some herbal medicine—took a shot of whiskey—and continued to do his show! It wasn’t too long before he collapsed—went into convulsions. Oh, they said—it’s just an epileptic seizure. He has them all the time. He’ll be just fine. Just wait and see! Well, he wasn’t just fine. When they finally did take him to the hospital—it was too late. The poison had spread all through his body. He was dead! The snake man—the man who played with poisonous snakes is dead from a single snake bite! How sad is that? There is a snake—far more dangerous than any cobra. A snake that comes slithering out of hell. There are all kinds of people who think they can handle the devil. They think they can play with the poison—the venom of sin and it won’t hurt them. They think that after years and years of not seeing—not feeling any consequences of their sins—that there is no penalty. They think all this talk about danger and Judgment Day and hell fire is all threat and bluff. That the fires of hell are only imaginary and make believe. They think that doing nice things—makes up for doing bad things. It’s like the Subway sub sandwich commercials—that imply—eating fat free low carb sub sandwiches balances out—doing all kind of morally wrong stuff! The idea that doing something good balances out doing something bad—is built into our hearts and minds. It’s also an idea planted there by the devil. This Palm Sunday—God’s Word brings us law and gospel. It shows us the awful ugliness of our sins—and the greatness of God’s grace and mercy. Today:

God’s Word Is All About Attitude!

1. Jesus humbled himself

2. Now, Jesus is exalted

It would be tempting to think—if only we had the apostle Paul as our pastor. Then everything would go incredibly smoothly. There would be no troubles—no problems—no grief. Everything would be just perfect! The fact is—the apostle Paul had all kinds of troubles. If you read through the Acts of the Apostles—you see that where Paul preached law and Gospel—the enemies of the truth stirred up trouble. Sometimes it was just people who forever argued and criticized and complained about the Gospel. And sometimes it actually turned literally physically violent! It was horrible! It got so bad—finally the apostle Paul had to invoke his Roman citizenship—and exercise his right to be judged by the Emperor himself. The Lord watched over Paul during his long and difficult trip to Rome. The Lord gave Paul a wonderful attitude—during the couple of years Paul was in Rome—chained to a Roman soldier. Paul had the freedom to receive guests and visitors. He had the freedom to write letters of encouragement to the believers in Ephesus, Philippi and Colosse—and to his friend Philemon. But Paul was never really free—never ever really alone—chained to his prison guard. Jesus made Paul patient. And all the glory for that belonged to Jesus!

Every so often—as we have sermons from Philippians—we review just a few of the facts about this city. What comes to mind—when you hear Philippi? Remember Philip II—the father of Alexander the Great? 359 years before baby Jesus was born—Philip seized the throne of the Macedonian Empire—and quickly worked to make his empire larger still. Philip grabbed the territory around a city called Krenidies—that is the city of fountains—and changed its name to Philippi. When you are the King—you can name stuff after yourself! Philippi was an important city because there was literally gold in the hills around her. That gold would buy armies of soldiers to make Philip’s empire grow. And more gold still bought armies to make Alexander the Great greater! Jump ahead in history to 42 years before baby Jesus is born. The gold around Philippi is just about gone. But Philippi was the place where Brutus and Cassius—remember—the assassination of Julius Caesar—“and you too, Brutus?” Philippi was the place where Brutus and Cassius were defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian. Octavian became Caesar Augustus. Remember—“and it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus—that all the world should be taxed”? See how our Heavenly Father is the Lord of history? Kingdoms come and go—thrones rise and empires are toppled—according to the gracious plan of our Savior! It was to retired roman soldiers living on the fringe of the Roman Empire—people proud of their roman citizenship—that the apostle Paul wrote, “But our citizenship is in Heaven!” That’s all that matters. That’s all that counts!

God’s Word is all about attitude. God’s Word says, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Attitude! Because we are sinners—through and through—we are born with a bad attitude! Little babies fuss—when they are changed and powdered and lotioned—and warm and safe—still they can fuss. “I don’t want to be in this car seat! Pick me up! There! I’m not safe—but I am happy!” Being two years old—is not an excuse for having a terrible attitude. There is a fine line between—you need to learn to take care of yourself—feeding yourself and getting dressed. And an attitude that grabs and turns away and sneers at a parent—“I can do that myself!” Any time any attitude is one of disrespect and insolence it is wrong. It is sad to see public service announcements about parents confronting their young people about drug abuse—where they practice screaming and slamming doors again and again—screaming and slamming—screaming and slamming—screaming and slamming. Our attitude is not the same as that of Christ Jesus—if at school—at any school—people tease and mock and ridicule and belittle other people—about their appearance or their clothes or their answers in class or anything! It is sad that bad attitudes don’t get better as we get older. It is sad to hear about a man who found out he was terribly sick. Rather than face this illness—trusting God’s promise that we are not tested beyond what the Lord makes us strong enough to bear—he jumped out of an airplane on his 88^th birthday—without a parachute! It is sad to hear about a little grandpa—some 90+ years old—who tries to rob a bank? This same guy robbed a bank when he was in his 80s and spent time in prison for that! How slow is he to learn robbing banks is wrong! Are we that slow to learn, too! Do we make the same painful sinful hurtful mistakes again and again! When our attitude is more and more like Jesus’ attitude—our lives will reflect our Heavenly Father’s will more and more! Jesus is always and forever the ultimate example.

Jesus…who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped…” Jesus did not make equality with his Heavenly Father something to be grasped. The Greek word here literally means something to be grasped, seized, held on to. Think of a football player—the way they hang on to the football when they go crashing though the line. They hold it in their hands—both hands—with their arms wrapped around it—their whole upper body wrapped around it—they shield it—so nobody can tear it away from them. This is not—NOT how the Son of God held on to his power, glory and authority as the very Son of God! Jesus made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant—The Greek word for servant—doulos—is not a butler—wearing a tuxedo—being snobbish and snooty—serving fine wine—and tasting fancy foods in the kitchen! The word doulos means a slave—a person who has no will of his own. One who lives only and simply to do the will of his master and owner—without question and without a moment of hesitation! This is Jesus washing the dust and sweat and filth from between the toes of his fishermen disciples. This is the slave—born into this world to pay for our thoughtless, careless, callous sins! Jesus made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! There is a professional basketball player—on trial because his chauffer was shot—with a shotgun. The case is very complicated—with accusations of panic and a cover up—trying to put the blame on the victim—tampering with evidence—lies and deception. I saw the man accused of this murder in court the other day. He was wearing a very simple black suit. On his lapel was a very simple—and wide cross—each part about half an inch wide. You couldn’t miss it. Jesus’ forgiving love means when the ultimate trial comes—the ultimate verdict will be not guilty for Jesus’ sake. In the end—that’s all that really matters. That’s all that really counts.

Jesus lived a life without sin—then died bearing all our guilt, shame and blame. 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. Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? Not yet! Oh, turn on TV—try to watch a movie—stand in line at the grocery store and you will very likely hear Jesus’ name—to curse and swear. You will hear the name of Jesus on the lips of people who mock and ridicule him. I was watching one of those TV cops and robbers shows the other day. A victim of an unspeakable crime said to the lawyer in the $600 suit who was defending her attacker—“I hope you rot forever in hell!” The attorney smiled and said—“Don’t you know—in my religion there is no hell!” He smiled—turned in his expensive shoes and walked away! There is in fact a heaven and a hell. And all those who mock, scorn and ridicule the Carpenter from Nazareth will not mock him forever. Come Judgment Day their mouths, too, will have to confess that Jesus is Lord—to their shame and forever pain and sadness. There will be no greater tragedy than that!

Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. It all has to do with attitude! The other day—a gold merchant—a trader in gold—coins and small portions—like half inch thick credit cards—and massive gold bars—was robbed. He was on his way to his office—when his fancy car was stopped by robbers. They broke into the back seat of the gold merchant’s car and cut the satchels he had strapped to his body and made their hasty get away---with 2 satchels of his dirty laundry! How dumb is that? The fact is—everywhere you look—there are people racing and chasing after this things and stuff of this world—they are blind to what is really precious. In their scratching clawing scrambling after gold—they end up with stacks of dirty laundry. What is precious—what is priceless—what has forever value is the forgiveness that is ours by grace through faith. Confess that Jesus Christ is your Lord—by everything you say and do—until you sing his praises with angels. Amen!

To God alone all glory!