1996 SINGLE SERMONS
HUMILITY
DR. JIM DIXON
MARCH 24, 1996
PHILIPPIANS 2:3-11
He was quite literally an angel. He was one of the angelic hosts. Even in that high order he was exalted. He was high and he was lifted up. He had great beauty. The Bible tells us that he was the signet of perfection, perfect in beauty. Every precious stone was his covering. He had vast intellectual faculties. The Bible tells us that he was full of wisdom. He had great power. He had great authority. The Bible tells us that God had placed him in as an anointed guardian cherub. He walked amidst the stones of fire. He was, perhaps, a ruling angel. He was an archangel. He was given a name and most Bible scholars believe that name was Lucifer, which means “bearer of light,” or “light bearer.” There was one quality he lacked. There was just one quality he lacked, and that quality was humility. He lacked humility. The Bible tells us that he corrupted his wisdom for the sake of his splendor. He said in his heart, “I will ascend. I will set my throne on high. I will make myself like the most high God.” In his absence of humility, the Bible tells us, he was cast down. The Bible tells us (and I promise you today on the basis of holy scripture) that at the consummation, at the last judgement, you will be cast down if you are without humility.
I have two teachings this morning related to humility, and the first teaching is this: to be humble means to exalt others. To be humble means to exalt others. You see, humility begins with exalting other people, and the first other is God. I mean, the first person we exalt if we’re humble is God. If you’re really humble, you begin by exalting God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Now, if you’ve ever been to Europe and traveled around the various nations of Europe, you’ve probably seen the old gothic cathedrals. Perhaps you’ve noticed that on the cornerstone of each cathedral four letters are carved into the stone: the letters AMDG. You find those four letters also etched in the base of the stained-glass windows. In almost every cathedral you see those four letters: AMDG. You will also find those letters stitched into the tapestries of those cathedrals. If you look under the pews or choir stalls, you will find those same four letters carved into the wood, four letters representing four Latin words: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam—”to the greater glory of God.” That’s why they built the cathedrals: to the greater glory of God. Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. That’s why they carved those four letters into the cornerstone. That’s why they etched those four letters into the stained-glass windows. That’s why they stitched those four letters into the tapestries. That’s why they carved those four letters into the pews and into the choir stalls. Everything, even the cathedral itself, was to the greater glory of God. Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.
You see, the Bible tells us that if we’re Christians, if we truly believe in Jesus Christ, if we receive Christ as Lord of life and our Savior from sin, then we have become a cathedral. We have become a temple of God in which God dwells by His Spirit. Those four letters need to be literally stamped, impressed, on our very personhood. AMDG: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam—”to the greater glory of God.” When we wake up each morning and when we go to bed at night, everything we do during the day, everything we say, needs to be to the greater glory of God. That’s where humility begins: with the exaltation of God. That’s why we can’t really even be a Christian unless we are first humble, because we would never come and embrace Him as Savior unless we were humble. We’d never see the need for a Savior unless we were humble. We’d never submit to His authority, His lordship, unless we’re humble. We’d never live to exalt Him unless we’re humble. That is where humility begins, the Bible tells us: with the exaltation of God and the exaltation of Christ. But then, inevitably, that humility extends to others.
In our little drama we saw how John the Baptist was portrayed as perhaps a humble man. If he was humble, what made him humble? Was it the way he dressed? The Bible says he dressed in camel hair with a leather belt. Was it the food he ate? The Bible tells us he ate wild honey and locust. Was it the way he lived or the place he lived? The Bible tells us he dwelt in the Judean Wilderness. No, his humility had nothing to do with any of those things. He was humble because he lived to exalt Christ. For this he was born. He said to his own disciples, “After me comes one who ranks before me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. ”
When Jesus Christ appeared by the Jordan River, John said to the multitudes, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” He lived to direct everyone to Christ. He didn’t want to direct people to himself. He wanted to direct everyone to Christ. When John’s disciples came to him and said, “Everyone is leaving you, everyone is going to Jesus,” John said, “I must decrease, but He must increase.”
God would ask you today, “Do you really want to see Christ increase?” Is this why you live each day? I mean, do you live to see Jesus Christ increase? Do you live to see Him exalted? If you do, you will want to be used by Him to exalt others. You see, Jesus said, “I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink. I was naked, and you clothed Me. I was sick and in prison, and you visited Me. I was a stranger, and you welcomed Me.” When people asked, “When, Lord? When did we do these things?” He said, “Inasmuch as you’ve done it unto the least of these, My brothers and sisters, you’ve done it unto Me.” You can’t exalt Christ without exalting others. If you really want to exalt Christ, if you want to be humble before Christ, then you must be humble before others for His sake. We must exalt others for His sake.
This is a different definition of humility for most people because most people think humility has to do with how you view yourself. You see, biblically, humility has primarily to do with how you view others. People have a hard time defining humility because they think of humility in terms of self. You know, it’s been said, “In order to be humble, you need a dog to adore you and a cat to ignore you,” and that would be true if humility was just a balanced view of self. But, you see, biblical humility has little to do with self or your view of self and it has everything to do with others and your view of others. So, if we’re really humble, we probably don’t think about ourselves much at all. If you’re talking to a humble person, it’s not the low things they say about themselves that make them humble. They’re probably not thinking about themselves at all. If they’re really humble, they’re thinking about you. They’re wanting to care for you. They’re wanting to serve you.
They’re wanting to exalt you because, biblically, you see, the word for humble, the word tapeinos, that Greek word is a relational word. It’s a relational word and it’s expressed in the exaltation of others. If you lower yourself, it may or may not be humble. If you lower yourself for the sake of exalting others… If you lower yourself for the sake of exalting Christ and then for the sake of exalting others, that’s humility. But if you lower yourself and it has nothing to do with exalting others, it’s not humility. It’s just self-abasement. It’s just self-degradation. True biblical humility has little to do with self-abasement or self-degradation. We might participate in self-abasement because we have low self-esteem, or we might even participate in self-abasement because of pride, but if it’s true humility we only lower ourselves in order to exalt others.
Jesus Christ said many things about Himself. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” That doesn’t sound very humble if humility is self-abasement. Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father. I and the Father are one.” That doesn’t sound very humble if humility is self-abasement. Jesus said, “Before Abraham ever lived, I AM.” That doesn’t sound very humble if humility is self-abasement. But, you see, humility has nothing to do with self-abasement. It has everything to do with exalting others, and Jesus Christ came into this world to exalt you. He came into this world to exalt people. He’s the model, the Bible tells us, of true humility. He came into this world to exalt us.
In Philippians, chapter 2, it says, “Have this mind in you, which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. But He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of man and being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even unto death on a cross.” Why did He do that? Why did He lower Himself? Why did He come incarnate? Why was He born in Bethlehem? Why did He come into our world? Why did He die on that cross? He did it to exalt us.
There’s that beautiful passage in 2 Corinthians, chapter 8, where the Bible says of our Lord Jesus Christ, “Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that through His poverty we might become rich.” Isn’t that beautiful? “Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that through His poverty we might become rich.” Do you understand what humility is? It may involve lowering yourself, but if so, not for the sake of selfdegradation, not for the sake of self-abasement, but for the sake of serving others—for the sake of exalting others. And that’s what this word tapeinos connotes, “to exalt others.” And so, if you’re truly a Christian and you would be humble before Christ, you need to live each day to exalt Him and then to exalt and serve others for His kingdom’s sake.
You know, every year, in recent years, our staff and elders have gone down to the Glen Eyrie Christian conference center down in Colorado Springs. Glen Eyrie is the international headquarters of The Navigators’ ministry. The Navigators seek to disciple men and women to maturity in Jesus Christ. They have a great conference center down there near the Garden of the Gods. The grounds are just beautiful. Every year when we go down there, the staff and elders, we bring our spouses. Every year, Barb and I take a little walk. We walk from the castle there at Glen Eyrie about a quarter of a mile into the foothills to the grave of Dawson Trotman. Dawson Trotman was the founder of The Navigators. He longed to see men and women built up in Jesus Christ.
When we take that walk to his grave, it’s just kind of beautiful there on the mountainside, and you have a great view. Barb and I always sit down there. Sometimes we pray and sometimes we just talk. Dawson Trotman died in New York State in Schroon Lake. He died in a boating accident. He didn’t die because he was hurt in the boating accident. He died trying to rescue others. He dove into the water. He went down and he brought a person up and saved that person’s life. Then he went into the water again and he pulled up another person who was drowning. And then he went into those cold waters of Schroon Lake one more time, a third time, exhausted, trying to rescue another person and he just didn’t come back up. He died there in that lake.
Time Magazine had a picture of Dawson Trotman and a beautiful caption under the picture: “Always lifting somebody up.” Isn’t that great? You see, if you’re a Christian, if you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior, that’s your call. That’s my call. We’re called to lift people up. We’re called to give our lives every day, day after day, to lift people up. That’s the very essence of humility. It’s not to lift ourselves up, but to lift others up and to give our lives in the doing of it. Humility has to do with exalting others.
There’s a sense in which at this time in which we live, perhaps more than at any other time, there needs to be humility corporately in the body of Christ. Churches need to have a kind of corporate humility where churches exist to lift not only each other up but to lift others up outside the church. We need churches to have a corporate humility, where they’re seeking to rescue people who are hurting, people who are lost, people who are ill, and people who are poor.
You know, Time Magazine recently said (and so did US News and World Report) that there’s a growing problem in suburbia. They say the problem is called “white rage.” Have you ever heard of white rage? Apparently, there’s a growing problem in suburban America with what they are calling “white rage.” White rage is kind of a reaction, a counterreaction to what has gone on in the minority communities in the wake of the OJ Simpson trail, in the wake of Louis Farrakhan, and here in Denver in the wake of individuals like Jumhal X and the racist comments he made. There has been a kind of white rage develop. White people are beginning to realize that they haven’t cornered the market on racism, that racism is everywhere—red, yellow, black, and white. Racism is everywhere. Now, there’s kind of a counterreaction, according to Time Magazine, called “white rage.” A lot of white people are becoming indignant in the suburbs.
Maybe that’s true of you. But whatever oppression you receive as a white person, whatever justifiable rage you might have—it pales when compared to the justifiable rage that a black person should have in our culture (or a Hispanic person or an Asian person). I promise you, what suburbs need, what the suburban church needs desperately, is not rage. We don’t need white rage. We don’t need black rage. We don’t need Asian rage. We don’t need Hispanic rage. What we need is humility. We are in desperate need of humility. Without humility, we cannot be broken before God. Without humility, we will seek only to exalt ourselves. Without humility, we’ll never live to exalt others. We’ll never even live to exalt Christ, let alone exalt other people. Without humility, we’ll never go into the inner city. White rage isn’t going to send us into the inner city. Without humility, we’ll never become tutors in the inner city in this great tutoring program we have where you can go into the inner city by the hundreds and help inner city young people—black, Hispanic, it doesn’t matter. You’re not going to go there unless you’re willing to exalt others.
You’re not going to participate in Manna Ministry, where we seek to feed and clothe hundreds of people. You’ll never do that unless you long to exalt others and serve others. You’ll never enter into any ministry without humility. You’ll never teach Sunday School. You’ll never get into a cell group. You’ll never become a Stephen Minister. You’ll never serve out in the parking lot. How would you like to be serving out in the parking lot today? But, you see, the suburban church desperately needs humility. And humility means to exalt others, beginning with God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and then extending to people. That’s what humility is. It’s not so much how we view ourselves. It’s how we view others and whether we’re living to exalt ourself or whether we’re living to exalt others.
Well, secondly and finally, humility has to do with God exalting you. Humility is you exalting others, but it results in God exalting you. That’s the promise, you know. If you humble yourselves, if you live to exalt others, God will exalt you. Again, we have the great example of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “Have this mind in you, which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. But He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even unto death on the cross. Therefore, God hath highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in Heaven, on Earth, and under the Earth, and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
He humbled Himself and now God has exalted Him. There’s a sense in which this promise is given to all Christians, all who belong to Christ. If we humble ourselves, there will come exaltation. But I think this exaltation is sometimes misunderstood.
You may have heard of Sir Walter Raleigh. Sir Walter Raleigh was one of the most colorful people in English history. He was a soldier. He was an explorer. He was a writer. He was a poet. He was a businessman. It was Sir Walter Raleigh who helped lead the British forces to victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588. It was Sir Walter Raleigh who came here to North America and who named the Virginia Territory, which ultimately became the state of Virginia (or at least part of it did). He chose the name Virginia because Queen Elizabeth I, his queen, was called “the virgin queen.”
There are many legends concerning Sir Walter Raleigh and, of course, many of those legends are now known to be false. Some people have said that Sir Walter Raleigh discovered tobacco, that it was Sir Walter Raleigh who first introduced tobacco to England, but historians now tell us it’s not true. He didn’t discover tobacco and it wasn’t Raleigh who introduced tobacco to England. It was a Frenchman named Nico, and from his name is derived the word “nicotine.”
Some people have believed that Sir Walter Raleigh was the first to cultivate the potato in England, but historians now tell us that’s not true either. Of course, it’s been commonly believed that Sir Walter Raleigh established the first two permanent British settlements here on the North American Continent, but historians tell us that’s not true either. In fact, he never established a permanent settlement here in the colonies. In point of fact, his colonial experiments, both of them, were failures. In 1585 he established a colony on Roanoke Island with 108 people, but the very next year, in 1586, they left. They returned to England with Sir Francis Drake. They left in the midst of fear and in the midst of exhaustion. In 1587 he tried to establish a second colony on Roanoke Island with 117 people, 17 of which were women. Of course, that colony became the famous “lost colony” and they just disappeared. To this day no one knows where they went.
It’s commonly believed that Sir Walter Raleigh took his cloak and threw it down on a mud puddle so the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth I, wouldn’t get her feet dirty. And supposedly this enamored him in her sight, but historians tell us that that probably didn’t happen either. And yet they say it’s kind of an appropriate legend because it is true that Sir Walter Raleigh really did want to serve the Queen of England. I mean, he was really humble before her. He lived to serve her. He lived to exalt her. He would gladly have lowered himself for her. Because of this, she exalted him, make no mistake about that. It is historically true—she exalted him. She gave him a 10,000-acre estate in Ireland. She just gave it to him. She gave him trade privileges that enabled him to become rich. She gave him colonialization rights on the North American continent that made him famous. She gave him military status, increasing his fame. She knighted him in 1585, still further increasing his fame.
Is that what God is like? If we serve Him, if we exalt Him, if we humble ourselves before Him, is that what it means when it promises us that He will exalt us? Does it mean He’s going to make us rich? Does it mean He’s going to give us a 10,000-acre estate? Does it mean He’s going to give us fame? Is that what it means? I think many Christians view this promise that way, but they’re wrong. You see, Christ doesn’t promise to exalt us in this life in that way. Oh, there are blessings that come to us when we’re humble. There’s the joy that comes from knowing you’re serving Christ’s kingdom. There’s the joy that comes from knowing you’re helping other people. There are the friends that inevitably come if you have a servant’s heart. I mean, if you’re a humble person and you’re always thinking of the person you’re with and you’re seeking to serve them and encourage them and exalt them and care for them, you’re going to have a lot of friends.
There are many blessings that come in this life when we’re humble, but exaltation truly doesn’t come until the life to come. Christ wants you to understand that. Exaltation doesn’t truly come until the life to come. And so, we have this promise that if we humble ourself, He will exalt us. But that exaltation is eschatological. It is at the consummation. It is in the coming age. We have the promise of Peter when he says, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another. God opposes the proud. He gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you.”
When is it due time? Well, there may be some exaltation for the humble in this life, but the Bible is clear. True exaltation waits for the life to come. Oftentimes in this life the humble just experience humiliation. Sometimes that’s true. I know the last few years in my dad’s life were kind of humiliating for him. My dad, as most of you know, died last December, December of 1995. My dad was fighting Alzheimer’s in those last few years of his life. It is not an easy struggle, as many of you know. Some of you have loved ones who are struggling with Alzheimer’s.
The doctors weren’t 100% sure that he had Alzheimer’s, but he had some kind of short-term memory loss, and it was even beginning to affect his cognitive skills. Certainly it was not easy for Dad. I know in those last few years, even when he would come to visit us, he just had a hard time. Some days were better than others. This last time he came to visit us, the last time he was here, was when this church building opened, this new facility. It was in July of 1995. My dad and mom came out and they spent a few days at my house with Barb and I and they spent a few days at my brother’s house. We both live on the same block. My brother and his Barbara live just a few houses up from us—we both married Barbaras—and so it’s so easy when my parents have come out. They’ve just spent a few days with us and a few days with Greg and Barb. We’re real close together. We’ve lived in those homes for 11 years. My parents know the neighborhood well. They come out every year.
This last time, Dad and my mother and Barb were out in front of our house just talking. My mom says, “Barb, we brought the muffins out from Trader Joe’s, those muffins that you really like. They’re up at Greg and Barb’s house. Would you like to have them?” Barb said “sure,” so my mom said to my dad, “Ford, why don’t you go up the street and get the muffins? They’re there in the kitchen at Greg and Barb’s house.” My dad says “sure,” so he starts walking up the street. He goes about 100 feet and stops, looks kind of confused, turns around, comes back, and says, “What was it that I was supposed to get?” My mom said, “The muffins.” He says, “Oh yeah,” and he heads back up the street again. He goes about 150 feet and he’s up right around Greg and Barb’s house. He stops and he looks confused, and he walks back. He said, “I can’t find their house.” Of course, he had been there many times and stayed there many times. So my mom and Barb pointed to the house, told him the color of it, and said “the garage door is open” and “that’s the one.” And so Dad goes up the street and goes inside the house. Greg’s Barb is in the house. She sees my dad and says, “Well, what are you doing here?” He didn’t know. He couldn’t remember. And that’s hard.
In those latter months, my dad would go to church with my mom and he’d come home from church and he’d say to my mom, “It seems like something is wrong with my mind. I just can’t remember anything. It seems like people don’t want to talk to me anymore.” He said, “I notice when people do talk to us, they just look at you and they talk to you. They don’t talk to me anymore.” People were probably thinking that he wouldn’t remember, but he did remember that they didn’t speak to him. It was so hard. He even began to wonder… He said, “I don’t feel like I’m of much use anymore.”
If any of you have loved ones with Alzheimer’s, you know that journey. Now, my dad died of a stroke, and in a sense that was merciful because the years ahead are hard and Alzheimer’s is a tough journey. You know, my dad always lived to exalt Christ. He always lived to exalt Christ. He humbled himself before the Lord.
In December he went to be with the Lord, and that was when it was due time. That was due time. “Humble yourself unto the mighty hand of God, and in due time He will exalt you.” Do you understand that “due time” is in Heaven? There may be some exaltation on Earth, but there’s plenty of struggles here, plenty of trials here in the midst of joy and blessing. But true exaltation comes in Heaven, and for my dad, due time had come.
I think God wants us to ask ourselves today, “Do you really believe in Heaven?” I mean, are you just kidding yourself? Does it actually affect the way you live on Earth? Do you really believe in Heaven? Do you really believe in Christ? Do you believe He is the Son of God? Do you believe He is the hope of the world? Do you really believe He’s your Savior? If you do, if you really believe in Christ, if you really believe in Heaven, you will humble yourself. If you believe, you will humble yourself and you’ll seek to exalt Him above all else and you’ll seek to exalt others for His kingdom’s sake. In the final analysis, in due time, He will exalt you. Let’s close with a word of prayer.