WEBVTT 00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:06.500 If you have your Bibles, turn to Philippians chapter 2. 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:32.000 As we think about gifts this weekend, let's think about the greatest gift, not simply the greatest gift ever given, but the greatest gift possible. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:49.000 Now imagine you had a desire for God to give you something and you want something big. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:58.000 What could you ask of God that is bigger than what he's already given you? 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:03.500 In fact, God could not have given you anything more. 00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:13.000 He could have given you millions of millions of millions of dollars, billions of dollars, and it would be nothing to him. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:17.000 It could create you a universe and give it to you. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:25.000 And it would be no sweat, nothing to him to give you worlds. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:31.000 But there is one gift that he gave you that cost him everything. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:38.000 John 3 16 tells us how much God loved the world, how much he loved the world. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:49.000 And as we can think about God the Father loving the world that he sacrificed and gave his only son, the only thing that would cost him something. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:55.000 You can look at that verse John 3 16 and see the love of Jesus. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:00.000 Easily it could be the Lord Jesus or the Son of God loved you so much. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:03.000 How much did Jesus love you? 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:09.000 He loved you so much he gave himself to you. 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.000 Now this is the greatest of all gifts. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:20.000 As we think about the gifts we're going to be opening and the gifts that we're giving people, think about this gift this morning. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:28.000 Let's celebrate this gift that we have received, that we have in Christ. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:31.000 There's no greater gift ever than this. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:32.000 It's almost unfathomable. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.000 In fact, it is unfathomable. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:51.000 And if you're with me in Philippians chapter 2, we're going to use this text kind of as a guide to walk our way through the gift, the cost of this gift, the cost of Christ giving himself to you. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:03:02.000 In verse 6 it says,"Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a theme to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:21.000 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 the death on a cross." Now we think about the incarnation and the coming of Christ and Him taking on human flesh. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:27.000 We see, as we sung earlier, that He was born to die. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:35.000 That baby in a manger had a mission, and he wasn't designed to stay an infant. 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:38.000 He wasn't designed to stay a baby. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:42.000 That baby came to you as a gift, came to us, came into this world. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:45.000 This was the good news. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:48.000 This is peace on earth and good will towards men. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:56.000 This baby, the baby Jesus, came to die to give Himself up as a ransom for many. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:21.000 And everything of His life from start to finish, even the pre-incarnate Son of God, condescending and came and emptied Himself up of the enjoyment of His glory and took on human flesh and made Himself of no reputation so that He can take our sins upon Him and die on our behalf. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:26.000 This is the greatest of all gifts, and it cost Him immensely. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:28.000 It cost Him everything. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:33.000 There was not one penny He kept to Himself. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000 He gave His whole fortune. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:44.000 He gave His whole life and held back not one ounce for Himself. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:46.000 How much did He love you? 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.000 How much does He love you? 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:53.000 How much did this gift cost Him? 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:56.000 It's unfathomable. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.000 We give gifts. We hold back some for ourselves. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:01.000 We don't know this type of love. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:04.000 We don't know how to give everything we have. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:08.000 We have times that we think of ourselves. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:12.000 We put some of our time and efforts and money to ourselves. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:16.000 But the Lord Jesus left nothing for Himself. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:26.000 He reserved nothing of Him for His own satisfaction, for His own enjoyment, but sacrificed and poured out everything. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:29.000 And He had nothing to gain, nothing to get from it. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:38.000 Could you imagine we give gifts to those who give us gifts, but the Lord gave and loved those who did not love Him and who had nothing to offer Him, nothing to give Him. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:41.000 He had nothing to obtain by coming to this world. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:45.000 There was nothing for Him that He needed. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.000 And He loved those who did not love Him. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.000 He loved us when we hated Him. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:51.000 He loved us. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:06:06.000 This is true definition of goodness, true definition of love, a complete pouring out and giving of self, expecting nothing in return, getting nothing in return, just giving and giving and giving and giving. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:15.000 And He lived every ounce of His life giving and emptying Himself and pouring out Himself and loving You and loving You and loving You. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:30.000 And when you thought He could give no more, He continued to give more until He had absolutely nothing to give, until He was lifeless in the grave and could give nothing more. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.000 He completely gave everything. 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:35.000 Now let's look at the cost of this love. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:43.000 Let's look and take a moment to consider how much He loves you and how much this gift cost Him. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:47.000 We see first the cost of the incarnation. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:07:06.000 In our text, verse 6 says,"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. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:23.000 He became a baby." Luke 1 says, "The angel said to Mary, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a sod, and you shall call His name Jesus. 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:39.000 He will be great, and we will be called the Son of the Most High.' And Mary said to the angel,'How will this be, since I am a virgin?' And the angel answered her,'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:55.000 Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.'" This is no normal baby. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:08:00.000 This is the Son of God. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.000 Now, we've heard this all of our life, but take a moment to consider this. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:12.000 God, a baby? 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.000 How can that be? 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:49.000 What God ever conceived, all the conceptions of God, made up conceptions of deity, which of the conceptions that man have ever thought of about God would ever become a man, would ever lay aside the enjoyment of His glory and majesty, and take on human flesh and be born a little, little infant, and enter into a human womb. 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:55.000 And through all the development stages of the nine months, go through that process. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:09:00.000 None of us would go back and be reborn in such a way. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:09.000 What humbling condescension for God Almighty to say,'I'll be born. 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:22.000 I'll be born into the world and take on human flesh.' You see, it cost him the enjoyment of his glory, though he was in the form of God. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:25.000 He was equal with God the Father. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:28.000 He had no second place majesty. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:32.000 It's not like he was a little less God than God the Father. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:34.000 He was equal with God. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:38.000 He had equality with God. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:41.000 The angels beheld the Son of God. 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:48.000 They cried out, "Holy, Holy, Holy." They bowed down and worshiped Him as the Almighty. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:56.000 They bew Him as He was, full of majesty and might and power and glory. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:02.000 Everywhere He went, all the angels would bow down and worship Him. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:05.000 This is what He had had with all eternity with the Father. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:10.000 The Father understood His glory and loved Him. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:13.000 Now, this is what belongs to Him. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:15.000 This is His enjoyment. 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:18.000 When we have a little bit of fame, we grab hold of it. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:20.000 We don't want to lose it. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.000 We get a little praise and we cherish it. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.000 We meditate upon a little compliment. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:31.000 We might get here and there and go, "That's my compliment. That's me." But this is the glory of the Son of God. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:36.000 He had it all, but He said, "That which I had, I didn't grasp after. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:39.000 I didn't have to have. I willingly laid that aside. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:43.000 I'm a humble deity and I don't have to have that praise. 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.000 I don't have to have that majesty. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:49.000 I don't have to have that outlook where all the angels see me as glorious. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:52.000 I can lay that aside. I can give that up. 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.000 I can sacrifice. I can empty myself of the praise. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:11:00.000 I don't eat it. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:12.000 I'll give it up. I'll give up the enjoyment of it." You see, He humbled Himself and gave up the enjoyment of His glory. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:13.000 How did He do this? 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:16.000 The Bible says He emptied Himself. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:22.000 That is, He sacrificially denied Himself of this enjoyment. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:25.000 How did He empty Himself of the glory? 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:30.000 He didn't cease to be God, but He veiled that glory. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:35.000 He veiled that majesty with human flesh. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:44.000 He took on humanity and became into the form of a man. 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:49.000 And when people saw Him, they did not see the Almighty and omniscience. 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:59.000 They didn't see deity. They saw humanity. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:08.000 He emptied Himself up of the honor, the praise, and the direct manifestation of His eternal and divine nature. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:19.000 He remained God, but when He came to us, all that glory He laid aside. 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:25.000 He didn't grasp after it, denied Himself of it. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:32.000 The King James says He made Himself of no reputation. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:40.000 He entered into a mother's womb to take on her human flesh. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:46.000 From our perspective, what type of God would do such a thing? 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:53.000 To give so much to deny Himself of His glory, to love you so much. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:13:16.000 When we think about Christmas, when we think about baby Jesus, think of Him letting go, willfully, willingly, actively, not grasping onto that glory, but laying it aside to take on no reputation for you. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:22.000 Now that was the cost of the incarnation. Think about the cost of His lowly life. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:31.000 It says in verse 7, "Being born in the likeness of men." Jesus tells us that He is meek and lowly. He is humble of heart. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:37.000 But how meek and how lowly and how humble is the Son of God? 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:40.000 Just how lowly is our God? 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:46.000 Now remember Jesus, the Son of God, represents perfectly the Father. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:51.000 We know that the Father is humble in nature as well. 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:57.000 But just how humble is our God and meek and lowly is our God? 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:07.000 He is humble enough to be born in a barn and laid in a feeding trough. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:11.000 We take that for granted because we have heard it all of our life. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:16.000 We have seen the naivety scenes. We have seen them and they are neat. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:20.000 But think about it for just a moment. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:26.000 The Almighty laying in a feeding trough. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:29.000 It is unbelievable. 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:34.000 That is sacrificial giving. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:37.000 He was not born in a palace. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:40.000 If you were going to be God and say, "Well, I am going to come to humanity. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:47.000 I am going to take on human flesh," you and I would choose a palace to be born in. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:50.000 We would have a team of nurses around us. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:55.000 We would have a team of maids and handmaidens serving and being there and waiting on our every need. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:58.000 We would have all the creature crump for us. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:01.000 In fact, I have thought about this a lot. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:04.000 I would not have chosen to be born 2,000 years ago. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:11.000 I would have waited until there was electricity and indoor plumbing. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:14.000 I mean he knew it was coming. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:24.000 But wait, I will come when they do not have such creature crumpfords. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:31.000 Think about this when you complain about your home next time. 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:33.000 Think about that. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:40.000 When something is broken and you cannot fix it or wish you had a little bit nicer crumpfords. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:42.000 Think about that for a moment. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:47.000 He came and was born in a barn. 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:51.000 He did not have a proper crib to lay his head. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:53.000 Think about his humility. 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:55.000 Why did he do this? 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:57.000 It was not accidental. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:15:58.000 It was not unplanned. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:00.000 It was purposeful. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:05.000 It was out of charity and grace and love and kindness. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:07.000 He loved you. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:10.000 This was motivated out of love for you. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:13.000 This is his gift to you. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.000 Why a manger? 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:17.000 Remember the sign. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:21.000 You will see a sign, a baby in a manger. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:32.000 He came to us to speak of his love, his humility, not his wrath and his justice, but of his grace and his mercy to us sinners. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:38.000 You see, we learn in Isaiah 53 verse 2 that he took on an unimpressive appearance. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:43.000 It says, "For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:48.000 He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:53.000 He took on an average looking body. 00:16:53.000 --> 00:17:04.000 He chose a normal looking body to inhabit, not the best looking guy, not some tall imposing figure that everybody would respect. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:25.000 He became in a body that had no beauty, no outward form that we would desire him because of his looks." Think about that next time you and I want to complain about something about our looks. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.000 He chose, he's the only one who chose his body. 00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:41.000 He chose it and he was humble and wasn't looking for approval of his physical appearance. 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:45.000 Because he's humble, he's lowly. 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:56.000 He chose to be born in a barn and braised in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:01.000 He went of all places to a place called Nazareth. 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:13.000 And it was a city that no one, a little village of no value, didn't have much of a, nothing good had ever come out of Nazareth. 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:18.000 And it was a city that was despised and looked down upon. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:48.000 Not Jerusalem, not born and raised in Jerusalem, but he chose a backwoods place, a little country town in Arkansas to be born, a little village in the unknown, no place in Nazareth, out of the way, not a direct route to any major city, out of the way in the middle of nowhere in Galilee. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:59.000 Age of 12, he went to the temple and he says, "I must be about my father's business." But when his parents found him, the account says he went home with his parents and was submissive. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:04.000 He lived a life of obedience and submissiveness. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:12.000 He obeyed his subjects, Joseph and Mary, who were sinners. 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:15.000 Could you imagine that? 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:27.000 Submitting himself to lesser authority, bowing down some, no, we need to think about that next time we complain about our parents or your kids or complain about this leader or that leader say, hey, they don't know what they're doing. 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:37.000 How would you like to be the Lord Jesus submitting yourselves to parents, new parents that don't know what they're doing? 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:40.000 But he was submissive. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:45.000 He sacrificially served and submitted himself to his parents. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:47.000 He became a carpenter. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:56.000 We learned this in Mark 3 and Matthew 13, not only with Joseph a carpenter, his father, but it says he was a carpenter in Matthew 13. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:58.000 He learned the trade. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:01.000 Why would he do this? 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:08.000 Why would he take the time to learn a skill and take a job and work with his hands? 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:11.000 Because he's motivated out of love. 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:13.000 He gave himself. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:17.000 He wasn't seeking finances or money or a career. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:19.000 He wasn't thinking about retirement. 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:23.000 He was thinking about sacrificing his life. 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:31.000 He wasn't thinking about motivation of self, but how he could give out himself. 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:34.000 We learned they even became homeless. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:41.000 When he went off into his ministry, his public ministry, people would come to follow him. 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:43.000 So why would you follow me? 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:46.000 Foxes have their places to live. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:48.000 Birds have their places to live. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:49.000 They have holes. 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:50.000 They have nests. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:56.000 They have places to live, but the son of man has no place, no abiding place to lay his head. 00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:59.000 He was a homeless man. 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:01.000 He had no possessions. 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:06.000 Only possessions he possessed as a man was the clothes on his back. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:13.000 The Bible says for your sake, for grace, he who was rich became poor. 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:14.000 He's more poor. 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:15.000 You think you're poor. 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:20.000 Some of us may be poor and we're wondering about our finances this time of the year. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:26.000 We may be struggling, but you're richer financially than the Lord Jesus was. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:28.000 He gave up wealth. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:34.000 He was born in a manger and he lived in poverty. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:39.000 This is the cost of his lowly life. 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:43.000 Now let's think about the cost of his service. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:22:11.000 We see in verse 7, though he was in the form of God to not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, not as a master or a king, not seeking to have thousands of maidservants and manservants surrounding him and taking care of his every wish, as the leaders of the world seek to do. 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:14.000 He came to serve. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:17.000 His service cost him everything. 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:19.000 How much did he serve? 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:39.000 Every moment of his day, every thought in his mind, out of love for the Father, was directed to how he could serve you, served you, served his disciples, served everyone. 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:43.000 It cost him his privacy. 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:56.000 His first sign, after he was baptized and anointed with the Holy Spirit, he went into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and suffered intense persecution for your sake. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:03.000 Persecution from Satan and temptation from Satan, hungry and thirsty, he resisted. 00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:11.000 And after he resisted, he went from the Jordan River back to a wedding in Cana of Galilee. 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:26.000 And at this wedding, his mother comes to him and says, "We're out of wine." And it's the most amazing little dialogue that doesn't really make much sense. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:41.000 The Lord looked at his mother and said, "What does that have to do with me?" It's like, "Why are you looking at me for?" And then he says this amazing statement that is very key in the gospel of John. 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:53.000 He says, "For my hour has not yet come." We know that that hour is missioned five times in the book of John and only in the gospel of John, and that's talking about the hour of his death. 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:55.000 Why are you looking at me? 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:57.000 My hour has not yet come. 00:23:57.000 --> 00:23:59.000 Why is he saying that? 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:13.000 It's because he knew once he did a sign, once he performed a miracle, once he did this act, the steps of the cross has started. 00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:20.000 Once he reveals himself, then they're going to come after him for his life. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:22.000 It would be the beginning of the end. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:26.000 It would be the point of no return. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:29.000 Many times when he was at the point of death, many times they tried to kill him. 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:33.000 One time they tried to stone him to death when he was in Bethany. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:34.000 They tried to stone him to death. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:39.000 They wanted to kill Lazarus too because he raised him from the death, tried to kill both of them. 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:45.000 It says that he slipped out because his hour had not yet come. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:58.000 He knew that once he made water into wine, his ministry, he would become a public figure, and the death sentence had been begun. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:03.000 From that moment of turning water into wine, he goes back to Jerusalem. 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:07.000 He goes to Jerusalem for the Passover, talks to Nicodemus. 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:12.000 That's where we get John 3, the forgotful of the world conversation. 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:20.000 After he speaks to Nicodemus and after the Passover, he goes back to Nazareth where he was born, I mean raised. 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.000 He's at Nazareth and he's rejected. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:26.000 We'll talk about that in a minute. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:29.000 He's rejected by his own hometown. 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:38.000 Then after he's rejected, the next day he travels to a new hometown by the Sea of Galilee, a place called Capernaum. 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:42.000 Once he gets to Capernaum, he does his second miracle. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:47.000 He heals a man with a demon. 00:25:47.000 --> 00:26:00.000 Once he did that, once he heals in Capernaum, crowds, the whole city of Capernaum, all of the village, all of the surrounding areas, hear about this miracle worker. 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:05.000 In fact, if something happened in Conway where someone was truly healed, we'd all go out. 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:11.000 The whole city came out and it's said that he healed from morning to night. 00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:17.000 He spent all day healing everyone who came to him. 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:24.000 Then that night when he's exhausted, all day healing, healed everyone, healed the whole city. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:31.000 He goes into Peter's mother-in-law's house and she's sick and he heals her. 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:35.000 Once they found out at night, they're trying to eat dinner. 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:41.000 The city keeps coming and knocking on the door and he begins healing people in her house. 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:56.000 It is said after that, after he goes to sleep, he wakes up streamlier in the morning and he's found in the morning before the sun rises on a mountain praying, getting alone, getting a little private time because he's exhausted with all the people coming to him. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:13.000 Then the disciples come to him, "We've been looking for you. Everyone's looking for you." He says, "Let's go to other villages for I have come out. I have revealed myself to preach the gospel." From there, he takes his first Galilean tour around the cities of the Sea of Galilee. 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:21.000 He's healing everyone and the crowds follow him everywhere he goes. 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:30.000 He has no more private time, no more alone time, no more, let me kind of shrink back and hide a little bit. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:40.000 No, he has crowds, the Bible says, following him everywhere, constant people pressuring upon him, trying to touch his role. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:45.000 He can't go anywhere. This is why he would travel on a boat. 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:51.000 It was faster to travel around the Sea of Galilee, around the road, around the city, but he would be in a boat. 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:56.000 One, when he's taught to get away from the crowds because they were pressuring upon him. 00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:01.000 But also, the boat rides would at least be a little bit of time to be by himself. 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:06.000 But it is said when he would go across the sea, you could see across the whole sea. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:09.000 No matter where you're at, you could see the other side of the sea. 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:13.000 And they would see where his boat, which direction it was headed in. 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:17.000 And all the cities would be watching him, tracking his movements. 00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:23.000 And no matter where he would go, the crowd would be already waiting on him. 00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:27.000 One time he sent out the 12 disciples to go preach. 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:31.000 And after they came back, he says, let's go to a desolate place. 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:36.000 He says, because the Bible says, because they had no leisure time to even eat. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:41.000 So let's go and find a little time to ourselves. Let's go and find a little place. 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:43.000 Let's go to a desolate place. 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:49.000 And they get in a boat. And the Bible says, they saw. 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:55.000 They saw where he was going and they go on a little retreat or they try to at least. 00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.000 And they get to the other side. 00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:04.000 And there's the crowd waiting on him in a desolate place, not even in a known place. 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:06.000 He's just there on the Sea of Galilee. 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:12.000 In fact, we learned there was 500 men because he ended up having to feed those men. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:18.000 What kind of retreat is that where you try to get away and you've got 5,000 people there. 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:20.000 And then you have to feed them. 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.000 And from that, he leaves and comes back to Capernaum. 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:30.000 And when he gets back to Capernaum, there's crowds waiting on him there. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:40.000 It says in Mark six, when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region, begin to bring sick people in their beds, wherever they heard he was. 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:50.000 And wherever he came in villages, cities and countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and poured him that they might touch even the fringe of his garments. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:30:04.000 I mean, this is a man that his two and a half year ministry, his whole ministry through Galilee and Jerusalem and Judea, everywhere he went was no free time. 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:07.000 Never once did he turn anybody aside. 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:12.000 One time he went into the northern regions of Sedan. 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:19.000 And it says there in Mark seven, he entered into a house and did not want anyone to know. 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:23.000 But the Bible says yet he could not be hidden. 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:39.000 And it was in that house that the Grecian woman came, the Seraphanishan woman came to him and he even healed her when he was trying to be alone. 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:43.000 You see, the Lord gave his time. 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:46.000 He gave his life to serving. 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:53.000 And not one person to listen, not one person does he say no to. 00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:56.000 Not one person, he says, I won't heal you. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:59.000 Not one person does he reject. 00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:04.000 You can come to him because he loves you. 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:06.000 How do you know he loves you? 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:16.000 Because everything he does is evidence of his love. 00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:26.000 He told us that the greatest of all those who serve, and he's the greatest of all the servants, he served everyone but himself. 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:29.000 Matthew 2028, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:32.000 And he gave his life as a ransom for many. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:35.000 He demonstrated this throughout his life. 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:46.000 The Bibles would be arguing who's the greatest among themselves right after he cleans their feet. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:48.000 He's sacrificially gay. 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:57.000 Now I know you and I have moments where we love someone and we try to help someone and we give to someone. 00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:06.000 But none of us have lived a life saturated to give and to give and to give and to give. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:10.000 We feel sorry for ourselves when we give too much. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:13.000 But the Lord never felt sorry for himself. 00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:17.000 He never withdrew from serving others. 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:19.000 This is his love. 00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:21.000 This is the cost of his love. 00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:27.000 He poured out and poured out, poured out and continued to pour out. 00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:35.000 His acts of kindness and mercy and compassion and love and pouring out of himself led to a life of reproach and rejection. 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:40.000 He loved those who did not love him in return. 00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:45.000 I mean, we're told to give to those who we do not expect can give back to us. 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:52.000 He gave to all of us and we have nothing that he needs in return. 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:57.000 This is what you call true love, the real definition of love. 00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:01.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:07.000 Sacrificially giving, pouring out. 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:14.000 And he was despised and rejected by the very ones that he loved. 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:20.000 It cost him his service and his life, cost him his reputation. 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:29.000 The Bible says in Philippians 2 our text says he emptied himself of King James and New King James says he made himself of no reputation. 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:33.000 John 1 says he was in the world and the world was made through him. 00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:35.000 Yet the world did not know him. 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:40.000 He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:43.000 He was rejected by his own hometown. 00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:50.000 Here he is a carpenter for 30 years, raised, and knows probably everybody in this small village. 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:52.000 Everybody knows him. 00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:59.000 We know they knew him because they said is this not the son of the carpenter, Joseph and Mary and they knew all his brothers and sisters? 00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:06.000 They knew who he was. 00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:08.000 They watched him grow up. 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:11.000 These are the people he loved. 00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:13.000 He loved these people. 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:20.000 Don't think in those first 30 years of his life he wasn't pouring in to his hometown. 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:21.000 And what do they do? 00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:32.000 He comes after the wedding in Cana in the water into wine, he goes to the Passover in Jerusalem and he comes back through Samaria. 00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:34.000 Remember the woman at the well? 00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:37.000 He forgives her. 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:44.000 And then from Samaria, two days of Samaria, he goes back through Cana and then to Nazareth. 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:46.000 And at Nazareth he goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath. 00:34:46.000 --> 00:35:02.000 He pulls out a scroll of Isaiah and he reads the text and says,"This day in your area, this text is fulfilled." And people marveled at his teaching because he taught not like the scribes of Pharisees, but he taught with authority. 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:09.000 They marveled at him and then he began to explain that there are going to be some Gentiles that are coming and some Jews that will be rejected. 00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:16.000 And once they heard his teaching, it says they moved to kill him. 00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:23.000 They took their own son, their own citizen, and took him to the brow of the hill. 00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:26.000 And Nazareth is on a little hill. 00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:28.000 You can look up Google Earth, I did this morning. 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:31.000 You look up Google Earth and see the hillside of Nazareth. 00:35:31.000 --> 00:35:37.000 They took him to the brow of the hill and sought to push him over to kill him. 00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:47.000 Rejected by the very city, hometown that he chose to be raised in. 00:35:47.000 --> 00:35:55.000 From there he goes to the compendium and takes his Galilean preaching tour and the scribes and the Pharisees in Jerusalem hear about him. 00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.000 They send up a delegation to find out who this Jesus is. 00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:03.000 So they send up various scribes and Pharisees. 00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:10.000 And they examine and watch him and see if he heals on the Sabbath. 00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:21.000 And in the process they concluded that he does do miracles, but he does it by the hand of Beelzebub, that he's got a demon. 00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:27.000 Not the Holy Spirit in him, but the devil himself they claimed is in Christ. 00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:32.000 This is the evaluation they give of the Lord Jesus. 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:43.000 And then from there in that very moment that the scribes and Pharisees say he has a demon, it is said that his family came back because he came back to compernium. 00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:47.000 And when he got back into compernium, he says their family is looking for you. 00:36:47.000 --> 00:36:54.000 And it says in Mark that they wanted to seize Jesus. 00:36:54.000 --> 00:37:00.000 Mary and his brothers and sisters wanted to seize him because they thought he had gone mad. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:08.000 His own family, his own brothers and sisters thought Jesus had gone crazy. 00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:15.000 And from there he goes to the other side of the sea and he cast out pigs from a man living in the tombs. 00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:20.000 And these pigs, they're cast into a legion of them. 00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:23.000 And then they go into the sea and drown. 00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:29.000 And then the city comes out and says, we implore you, please leave. 00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:32.000 We don't want you here. 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:36.000 And they heard about this amazing man being healed. 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:42.000 And rather than being faithful and grateful and praising him and worshiping him, they said, please leave our city. 00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:45.000 We don't want you here. 00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:59.000 He was rejected by the Gentiles, rejected by the Jews, rejected by his family, rejected by his hometown and eventually his own disciples, when it came down to his death, he was dead in fear and left him alone. 00:37:59.000 --> 00:38:03.000 Even Peter would deny him. 00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:06.000 Eventually he was publicly mocked and embarrassed. 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:16.000 Isaiah 53 verse 3 says he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief as one from whom men hid their faces. 00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:20.000 He was despised and we esteemed him not. 00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:29.000 Here's a man who has nothing but love, gracious, sacrificial love, kindness, passion, humility, goodness. 00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:35.000 And people despise him, hate him. 00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:45.000 Psalm 22 six, the Messianic Psalm has the Lord Jesus saying, I'm a worm and not a man scorned by mankind and despised by the people. 00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:47.000 All who see me mock me. 00:38:47.000 --> 00:38:48.000 They make mouths at me. 00:38:48.000 --> 00:38:50.000 They wag their heads. 00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:51.000 He trusts in the Lord. 00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:52.000 Let him deliver him. 00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:56.000 Let him rescue him for he delights in him. 00:38:56.000 --> 00:38:58.000 So here think about the Lord. 00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:03.000 He's rejected by everyone, everyone. 00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:08.000 Even his own family rejects him. 00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:12.000 And he takes your shame. 00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:15.000 There were approaches of those who approach you fell on me. 00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.000 He said, how does he love you? 00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:21.000 How does it care for you? 00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:25.000 I'll show you and tell you how he loves you. 00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:32.000 All your embarrassment, all your disgrace, all your shame. 00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:45.000 Rather than being broadcasted on CNN for everyone to see and make fun of you, your shame, your embarrassment was put on Jesus. 00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:51.000 And he says, I will bear that for you. 00:39:51.000 --> 00:40:01.000 This baby Jesus that we celebrate grew up to bear your shame, your remorse, your guilt. 00:40:01.000 --> 00:40:10.000 And he was hung up on a tree naked for all to make fun of and mock him, spit on him, wag their heads at him, jest at him. 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.000 And that is what you and I deserve. 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:18.000 He takes it for us. 00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:23.000 He make himself of no reputation. 00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:29.000 Even we'll see, even the Father turns his eyes away from the Lord Jesus. 00:40:29.000 --> 00:40:33.000 Psalm 22 says, verse 1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:53.000 Why are you so far from saving me?" From the words of my groaning, "Oh, my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest." Even the Lord turns his, Lord the Father turns his face away. 00:40:53.000 --> 00:41:00.000 And this brings us to the greatest cost of this gift, his own life. 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:03.000 My last point is the cost of the cross. 00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:16.000 Look at verse 8 in our text, "And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on a cross." The whole life of Christ was a life of suffering. 00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:22.000 As we sung, he was born to die. 00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:33.000 He came and was given life, his human life, in that manger, in order for that life to be taken from him. 00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:39.000 His whole life from start to finish was a life of suffering and dying to self. 00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:46.000 Isaiah 53, he says, "As a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, it was a pathway to Calvary. 00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:51.000 Remember, when he turned the water into wine, he knew that that would set off that hour. 00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:56.000 It had not yet come, but that hour would start ticking. 00:41:56.000 --> 00:42:01.000 And every miracle he would do, he'd tell people,"Don't say anything about it. 00:42:01.000 --> 00:42:10.000 Don't tell the demons not to tell people who he was." And when he would kill people, he wasn't looking for fame, he wasn't looking for attention. 00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:17.000 But he knew that his miracles were setting him on the path to Calvary. 00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:21.000 He foretold of his death throughout his life. 00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:27.000 Three times, he said, right after the feeding of the 5,000, he told, "I am going to die. 00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:41.000 I am going to be turned over to Jerusalem and die and be suffered in that city." He foretold it after the transfiguration and in his route to Jerusalem three times. 00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:51.000 It's amazing the amount of the Gospels we know more about in the last six months of his life, of his ministry, than we know of the first 32 years. 00:42:51.000 --> 00:42:57.000 It's amazing the Gospels fast-forward his Galilean preaching tours. 00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:01.000 There's three major tours that he went on after his baptism. 00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:07.000 And he would travel to Jerusalem a couple times for the Passover, the Feast of Booths and different festival days. 00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:10.000 He would come down, but go back to Galilee. 00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:18.000 And then there was this last trip he makes to Jerusalem, six months before the last Passover, before he goes to Calvary. 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:25.000 And that last six months of his life, that's where most of the Gospels pick up and slow down. 00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:28.000 When we get to that last week, it really slows down. 00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:35.000 It tells us that his whole life was driven to Calvary. 00:43:35.000 --> 00:44:01.000 In fact, in Luke 9, it says, "When the time drew near for him to be lifted up, he was resolutely set out to go to Jerusalem." His last journey to Jerusalem, in Luke 12, 50, it says, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great it is my distress until it is accomplished." Have you ever had something in your life like you knew it's going to be something you don't want to do, but you've got to do it, but you can't get it on your mind? 00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:03.000 It's on your mind when you go to sleep. 00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:06.000 It's on your mind when you wake up, and you know you've got to take care of it. 00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:08.000 It's something you don't want to do. 00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:11.000 You're concerned about it. You're stressed out about it. 00:44:11.000 --> 00:44:16.000 But until you do it and get it done with, it's going to be on your mind. 00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:24.000 This is the life of Jesus Christ on the back of his mind, on the front of his mind, throughout his public ministry. 00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:29.000 I think since turning water into wine, he knew Calvary was coming. 00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:31.000 It was coming. It was coming. 00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:35.000 The six months before the last Passover, he knew his ire was coming. 00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.000 He says, "I've got to get to Jerusalem." Why did he have to get to Jerusalem? 00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:45.000 Because he tells his disciples that no prophet dies outside of Jerusalem. 00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:48.000 I mean, if he was going to run from this, he would not go to Jerusalem. 00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:53.000 If he wasn't going to willfully and willingly lay down his life, he wouldn't go there. 00:44:53.000 --> 00:44:59.000 But he was set and determined to travel to Jerusalem. 00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:27.000 He tells the disciples in Matthew 20, as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and on his way said to them,"See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and plogged and crucified." You see, though, in John he says, "No one takes my life." I give it. 00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:30.000 Many times it says they would try to stone him. 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:35.000 It says he would walk through them because his ire had not yet come. 00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.000 It's not that they took his life and he wasn't willing. 00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:43.000 He died because he went to Jerusalem. 00:45:43.000 --> 00:45:46.000 He died because he chose Calvary. 00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:48.000 This is his love for you. 00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:53.000 He willfully accepted to pour himself out even to the point of death. 00:45:53.000 --> 00:45:57.000 We see this in his ongoing sorrows. 00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:03.000 The night that he was betrayed, he goes to the garden and he sits there in praise. 00:46:03.000 --> 00:46:07.000 As he's praying, he's contemplating what's about to happen. 00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:12.000 His whole life was bit towards this hour and this hour has come. 00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:16.000 He starts to sweat blood. 00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:21.000 Why is he sweating blood? 00:46:21.000 --> 00:46:42.000 Because he says this, "My soul is consumed with sorrow even to death." He was dying there in the garden even before he got on the cross. 00:46:42.000 --> 00:46:48.000 He was consumed with sorrow. 00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:59.000 He prays, "Lord, Lord, let this cup pass for me." But this is not him trying to get God to change his mind. 00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:14.000 He uses a prayer of submission, "Nevertheless, not my will, but you will be done." He says in John 12, 27, "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? 00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:21.000 Father, save me from this hour?" No, it was for this purpose I've come to this hour. 00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:26.000 This is why I was born in Bethlehem. 00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:28.000 This is why I served and gave myself. 00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:31.000 This is why I loved and I kept my disciples. 00:47:31.000 --> 00:47:33.000 I kept all that you've given me. 00:47:33.000 --> 00:47:37.000 I've loved them fully and entirely and perfectly. 00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:46.000 And this I have come to love them to the very end, to pour out my own life. 00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:50.000 Think of the shame that he endured. 00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:55.000 Psalm 69 is another Messianic Psalm. 00:47:55.000 --> 00:48:03.000 It says, "Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck, a sinking deep mire, where there is no foothold. 00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:06.000 I have come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over me. 00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:09.000 I'm weary with my crying out. 00:48:09.000 --> 00:48:10.000 My throat is parched. 00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:22.000 My eyes grow dim, waiting for my God." Then it says this in verse 7, "For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. 00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:28.000 I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons. 00:48:28.000 --> 00:48:35.000 For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. 00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.000 When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. 00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:45.000 When I made sack off my clothing, I become a byword to them. 00:48:45.000 --> 00:49:01.000 Basically all my good and loving acts is being used to curse me and make fun of me." Verse 19, "You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor, my foes are all known to you. 00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:13.000 The reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. 00:49:13.000 --> 00:49:15.000 I look for pity. 00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:17.000 Think of your Jesus. 00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:19.000 Think of your Savior. 00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:26.000 I look for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. 00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:28.000 Where's Peter? 00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:44.000 He's denying me, over there.""They gave me poison for food and my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. 00:49:44.000 --> 00:50:04.000 He was full of compassion and pity for us, but he found no pity or compassion for himself.""We deserve to be on that cross. 00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:13.000 We deserve to be forsaken by it, but he loves us. 00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:17.000 In that moment he was in so much pain. 00:50:17.000 --> 00:50:22.000 Psalm 69, 29 says I'm afflicted and in pain. 00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:28.000 Psalm 22, verse 14, I'm poured out like water and my bones are out of joint. 00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:30.000 My heart is like wax. 00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:37.000 It is melted within my breasts, my strength is dried up like a pot-shirt, and my tongue sticks to my jaws. 00:50:37.000 --> 00:50:46.000 You lay me in the dust of death, for dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me, they have pierced my hands and feet. 00:50:46.000 --> 00:50:48.000 I can count all my bones. 00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:56.000 They stare and gloat over me, they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. 00:50:56.000 --> 00:51:04.000 Isaiah tells us as many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human sublience. 00:51:04.000 --> 00:51:07.000 It is formed beyond that of children of mankind. 00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:09.000 He was unrecognizable. 00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:15.000 They pulled out his beard, they whipped him, they scorched him, they beat him. 00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:23.000 He was oppressed and he was afflicted according to Isaiah 53, 7. 00:51:23.000 --> 00:51:26.000 And this is not all. 00:51:26.000 --> 00:51:32.000 The greatest amount of love, it's like he's giving and giving and giving. 00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:36.000 It's like okay, well there's a little bit more to give, well let me tell you how much he gave you. 00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:40.000 On that cross he bore the wrath of God. 00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:50.000 Isaiah 53 surely has borne our grieves and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed them, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. 00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:56.000 He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. 00:51:56.000 --> 00:52:00.000 Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. 00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:06.000 And in verse 6, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:19.000 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?""You wouldn't know why Jesus loves you. 00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:55.000 How could I know that Jesus loves me?""Yes, Jesus loves me.""Yes, he loves you.""How can we be certain?""Every act he ever did was proof of his love for you." There is no greater love than this that a man lay down his life for his friend, but he laid down his life for us, his enemies. 00:52:55.000 --> 00:53:02.000 Yes, he is meek and he is lowly, he is loving and he is kind. 00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:08.000 He never responded poorly when he was avowed, he entrusted himself to the Father. 00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:11.000 He never revolved back. 00:53:11.000 --> 00:53:21.000 Isaiah 53 tells us, "When he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that was led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before his shears is solid. 00:53:21.000 --> 00:53:36.000 So he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment he was taken away and for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living. 00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:41.000 He loved and loved and when people did not love him back, he continued to love them. 00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:49.000 Don't worry, he loves you right now, no matter how you've treated him. 00:53:49.000 --> 00:54:02.000 He continues to love you day after day after day." He said, "Well, Jeff, I don't know, I'm so scared of him, I'm so scared of God. 00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:12.000 You don't have to be scared of God when he came to us in a manger so that he can take our sins away. 00:54:12.000 --> 00:54:18.000 You can come to this lowly and meek and humble deity. 00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:22.000 You can come." He said, "What about my sins? 00:54:22.000 --> 00:54:31.000 We came to bear those sins on the cross that you might be fully justified and forgiven of all your unrighteousness. 00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:38.000 Come, as you think about Christmas this year, bow down and worship him. 00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:51.000 May this be our hearts desire as we sung earlier, all that is in me, all that is in us, may we worship this God. 00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:53.000 He is worthy. 00:54:53.000 --> 00:54:55.000 He is worthy of all that we have. 00:54:55.000 --> 00:55:02.000 He gave every thing to you and I. 00:55:02.000 --> 00:55:10.000 He is humble, he is lowly, he is good, he is loving, he is worthy of worship. 00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:29.000 He is worthy of praise, he is worthy to have a name above every name because he came and gave every thing." Let's pray. 00:55:29.000 --> 00:55:36.000 Lord, my words fail me, I know they fail me. 00:55:36.000 --> 00:55:42.000 I'm sorry for how poor this sermon is. 00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:49.000 You are much worthier of a better presentation of your lowliness and goodness and kindness and your love. 00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:51.000 What a great gift. 00:55:51.000 --> 00:55:53.000 Help us to treasure it in our hearts. 00:55:53.000 --> 00:55:55.000 Help us not be discontent. 00:55:55.000 --> 00:56:04.000 Help us to not be sidetracked with the materialistic things of this world during this season. 00:56:04.000 --> 00:56:11.000 Let us be worshippers of this with God before us. 00:56:11.000 --> 00:56:14.000 Lord, come dwell in our hearts. 00:56:14.000 --> 00:56:22.000 Enlarge our hearts to see your glory and your majesty, to see you lift it up. 00:56:22.000 --> 00:56:26.000 Oh, Lord, you are worthy of our worship. 00:56:26.000 --> 00:56:31.000 Forgive us of how we don't, in your son's name, amen. 00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:41.000 [BLANK_AUDIO]