Philippians 2:3-11
December 23, 2018
preached by Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“Why would God come this time in the form of a baby, rather than a firestorm or whirlwind? Because this time he has not come to bring judgment but to bear it, to pay the penalty for our sins, to take away the barrier between humanity and God, so we can be together. Jesus is God with us.”

~ Tim Keller (1950-present), American pastor, theologian, and Christian apologist

“The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle.”

“‘It seems, then’, said Tirian… ‘that the Stable seen from within and the Stable seen from without are two different places.’ ‘Yes,’ said the Lord Digory. ‘Its inside is bigger than its outside.’ ‘Yes,’ said Queen Lucy. ‘In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.’” (an excerpt from The Last Battle)

~ C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), British writer, scholar and lay theologian

“To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it: the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary.”

~ Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832), British author, clergyman, and art collector

“The only people whose soul can truly magnify the Lord are… people who acknowledge their lowly estate and are overwhelmed by the condescension of the magnificent God.”

~ John Piper (1946-present), American minister, theologian and author

“I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low for You; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal.”

~ John Wesley (1703-1791), Anglican cleric and theologian

“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes… and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.”

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), German Lutheran pastor, theologian and author

Sermon Passage

Philippians 2:3-11 (NASB)

³ Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; ⁴ do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. ⁵ Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.