We've been looking at the way God wants
man to live, as demonstrated in the life
of Jesus Christ.
And that is the example we need to
follow.
We want to consider a little more about
His humility.
We see Jesus identifying Himself totally with man.
He was not ashamed to be a man.
The Bible says He's not ashamed to call
us His brothers.
Sometimes we feel superior to some other human
being.
We feel we are more educated or we
belong to a higher class of society.
All this is because of the perverted pride
that has infected us ever since Adam sinned.
Jesus came to demonstrate that essentially all human
beings were equal, irrespective of race, family, education,
intelligence, culture, position in life or whatever.
He came and became one with the least
and the lowest in the social level in
His day in Israel.
He came below everybody because that's the only
way He could be the servant of everybody.
You cannot be the servant of another if
you are not willing to go underneath Him.
If you want to lift somebody up, you've
got to go underneath Him.
And that's how Jesus came.
Now, the Holy Spirit has come to make
our mind like Christ's.
In other words, to make our way of
thinking exactly like Christ's.
This is not a theory.
This is not something we just talk about
over a radio program or in a church.
It's supposed to become a reality in our
life, that in our mind we do not
any longer consider ourselves superior to any other
human being, whatever his religion or race or
anything may be.
Only then can we say that the humility
of Christ has begun to work in our
thoughts.
You know, if you were to think about
what are the...
Try and answer this question.
What are the thoughts you think about yourself
when you're all by yourself?
Can you answer that question?
What do you think about yourself?
I mean, do you think of yourself as
a good-looking person perhaps or very clever
or fortunate to be born in a rich
family or things like that?
There you can see how much of your
thoughts are like Christ's and how much of
your thoughts are like the devil's.
If you're comparing yourself with others and considering
yourself superior, that's exactly the type of thoughts
that went through the mind of Lucifer who
became the devil.
The Bible says that we must regard others
as more important than ourselves.
Philippians 2, verse 3.
And he goes on to speak in that
passage about Jesus Christ being our example.
Paul once said in Ephesians 3, verse 8,
he said, I am the very least of
all the saints.
Paul had been so gripped by the humility
of Christ that as he thought about himself,
he saw himself as the absolute lowest among
all the believers.
Now, there's no contradiction between that and Paul
telling the Corinthians that they were carnal.
Paul didn't consider himself carnal.
See, the Bible does not tell us, consider
other people better than yourself.
That would be impossible.
Who was the humblest man that walked on
the earth?
You know the answer?
That was Jesus Christ.
He was the humblest person that walked on
the earth.
Now tell me the answer to this question.
Did Jesus consider other people as better than
himself?
How could he do that?
He was so pure.
He was so holy.
He knew Judas Iscariot was a devil.
He didn't consider other people better than himself.
Humility does not mean considering other people better
than ourselves, because then we have to believe
a lie.
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians and saying,
you're carnal, you're babies, did he consider the
Corinthians better than himself?
No.
And some people have got this false humility
where they struggle and try to consider other
people better than themselves.
It's a futile effort.
The Bible doesn't ask you to do it.
What does it say in Philippians 2, 3?
Consider others as more important than yourself.
That's different.
Jesus considered others always as more important.
And that's why we see in picking a
bucket of water and washing the disciples' feet
at the Last Supper, you know, that was
a job done by servants in those days.
He went to a home, and the master
of the home, if he was a rich
man, he had slaves.
Slaves means people who were bought, who did
not get any wages.
They were lower than servants.
And the slave's duty was when guests came
to the house to take a basin of
water and wash the dust from their feet,
remove their sandals and wash the dust from
their feet.
And so, wherever a supper was arranged, there
would always be a basin of water near
the door.
And so, when the disciples and Jesus came
to this Last Supper, there was no host
there because they only had an empty room.
But the basin of water was kept there.
Now the question was, who was going to
do the job of washing the people's feet?
And each disciple must have thought, well, I'm
not going to do that.
Peter may have thought, well, I'm just going
to be the leader after Jesus goes away.
How can I do such a thing?
And Matthew may have thought, well, I'm an
educated accountant.
I can't go washing the feet of these
disciples.
And like that, each of those disciples may
have thought how they were superior to the
others in some way, and therefore they couldn't
possibly do a slave's job.
It's better it's not done.
And then Jesus took up that basin of
water and began to wash their feet.
Why?
Because He said, well, you're all more important
than Me.
They were not more spiritual than Him, and
He didn't think so, but He treated them
as more important.
He really considered Himself genuinely.
It was not an act put on just
to show that He was humble.
You know, there can be people who act
humble, who do things just to show that
they are servants and they are humble.
That's all hypocrisy.
God hates it.
Jesus was genuine.
He really took that place of being nothing
before His heavenly Father.
And this is what humility really is, to
take the place of being absolutely nothing before
God.
Lord, I am nothing.
Everything that I am, You have made me.
You know, if I'm intelligent, who made you
intelligent?
God made you.
There are so many children born into this
world who are retarded.
You could have been born like that.
You could have been born with a defective
brain or a defective body, and you could
have been born and got polio, or you
could have been born with some congenital disease,
like many children are born into this world.
And what would you be then?
It really is proper for us to be
thoroughly humble when we think of our condition.
Lord, what do I have which I have
not received?
Only a foolish man is proud.
Now, Jesus took that place of a servant,
but we also read He went still further.
What is lower than a slave?
We'd say nothing, that's the lowest place.
No, a criminal, a murderer.
He would be considered even lower than a
slave.
And we read that Jesus was crucified just
like a criminal.
You know, this crucifixion, killing people on the
cross, was something that the Romans reserved for
the worst criminals in Palestine.
Ordinary criminals were not crucified, but the worst,
the absolutely incorrigible worst criminals, they'd kill them.
Kill them with this terrible process of crucifixion
where they'd suffer and die over a period
of many hours.
And Jesus humbled Himself to die on a
cross as a criminal.
The Bible says in Isaiah that He was
numbered with the transgressors.
He was counted among the criminals.
But because that was His Father's will, He
accepted it.
He obeyed.
It's marvelous to see the humility of Jesus,
right from the time He was a little
child.
You know, the Bible says in Luke's Gospel,
chapter 2, the last verse of Luke's Gospel,
chapter 2, that Jesus, Luke 2, 51, He
came to Nazareth and He continued in subjection
to Joseph and Mary.
And that went on for 30 years.
Now, were Joseph and Mary perfect?
Far from it.
They were no better than any couple today.
Think of an average Christian home today where
husband and wife fight with each other, once
in a while at least.
Well, Joseph and Mary were like that.
They were not perfect people who never sinned.
There's nobody like that.
They were sinners.
They were imperfect.
They did not know everything.
And in their home lived Jesus, who was
sinless, who was perfect, and who never did
anything wrong.
So, who should submit to whom?
One would think Joseph and Mary should submit
to Jesus, right?
The one who is imperfect, that's Joseph and
Mary, should submit to the one who is
perfect, that's Jesus.
But it wasn't like that.
Jesus submitted to an imperfect foster father and
mother.
You know, it's not easy for us to
submit to those who are inferior to us.
Can you submit to somebody who is inferior
to you?
But if you are genuinely humble, you'll have
no problem.
You'll submit to anybody because you realize you're
nothing.
And humility is the secret.
We have no problem with anybody when we're
humble.
Jesus was quite happy to be a carpenter.
When he went out into the ministry, he
never took any title.
He never called himself the Reverend Jesus or
any such thing.
He never wanted any position or title or
anything that would exalt him above the common
people whom he came to serve.
He became like his brothers in all things.
When they wanted to make him a king,
he ran away.
He never did anything to get honor from
men.
If he healed a sick person, he'd tell
that sick person, don't tell anyone.
Do you see his humility?
He wanted all the glory to be given
to the Father.
He never wanted to draw anybody to himself.
His healings were not publicity stunts to draw
attention to himself.
What a beautiful picture we have of what
man is supposed to be.
Think what would happen if the world became
full of people like this.
But you can make a beginning in your
life now.