Ephesians 6:18; Humility in prayer.

Class Outline:

The Son of God humbled Himself under the will of the Father = obedience in everything. The Father then exalted Him.

 

Php 2:1-11

If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; 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 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

Jesus humbled Himself and was exalted. We cannot get around the truth of this. If we decided, like the Pharisee in the parable, that we were going to pretend humility so that God would exalt us, we’re trying to fool the all-seeing, omniscient God. If we maintain that path, then we only end up exalting ourselves and our attempts at righteousness, at morality, will become self-righteousness.

 

1PE 5:6-11

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you. 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 

God’s hand is mighty. No enemy, no sin, the devil himself is no match for it. How do we resist the devil? Firm in your faith (armor of God), and we will suffer for a time. But standing firm, the God of all grace will mature you, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. Dominion is power, and those who are willfully under that dominion humble themselves in obedience to all His will.

 

Attaining virtuous character is diligent hard work done consistently over a long period.

 

2PE 1:5-11

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

 

God purified us, or cleansed us from sin so that we would live His life.

 

Virtue belongs to God. If we forget what God has made us through the cross of Christ, then we will assume that another type of life, like the Pharisee, is good enough, and eventually we will come to prefer it over the life of Christ. And, the world will agree with the life that is good enough or status quo.

 

We should want the manifestation of the life of Christ in us more than anything, and it takes us doing the hardest thing any human can do, die to the old self completely - as Jesus did in Php 2, obedience to the point of death. It’s a lot easier to put on the appearance of it. The Pharisees became so committed to appearance with lack of substance that their name became the standard for this kind of behavior.

 

Christ weaves an incredible satire to bring this out.

 

LUK 18:9-12

And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer. 11 "The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, 'God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. 12 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'

 

They both went up to the temple to pray, and for two very different reasons.

 

The Pharisee is sure that he is worshipping God. He has been told from his youth that he must pray to God and follow the Law. He has fooled himself so convincingly that he is sure that he keeps the law by tithing and fasting so that the whole center of his religion has become himself. He goes to the great temple, the house of God, or as Jesus called it quoting Isaiah, the house of prayer, the one place on earth that represents the Creator of heaven and earth and the One who made Israel His own nation, and the Pharisee prays to himself. He makes himself his own god while addressing the very God. How could anyone be so ironically dumb? That is the satire Jesus is giving to the Pharisees who stand aloof from the “other people.”

 

Self-deceptive religion is most fatal to the church and Satan knows it.

 

The Lord connects this situation to prayer in that, of all the things He could invent for this Pharisee in His parable to be doing, He has him praying - one of the highest, if not the highest, things that we can do, have an actual audience with the Almighty.

 

The best way to make Christianity useless is to convince the Christians that they are living well in the life of Christ by repeating prayers, observing fasts, attending ordinances, and upholding rites.

 

Christianity is the inner life of Christ, the life of the Spirit of God. It is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

 

Rituals and observances are much like paying taxes. When you have paid the bill, you owe nothing more (until next year), and you hope you have something left over for yourself. We can tell the old self to pause while we pay or do what we ought to, while promising the old self that we’ll return to it afterwards. Christianity is death to the old self.

 

This kind of religion, rather than softening a person’s heart and growing the love of God in him, it hardens his whole nature.

 

Trying to be righteous for a personal reason, rather than for life in the presence of God (in the sphere of His will and wisdom), is not humility but a subtle form of pride. Pride always hardens a person. They know within that they are weak beings, so they make an outer shell of religion or morality or some form of both while the inner man is mushy weak. To give of ourselves to another, to be truly gracious and compassionate and loving, we are giving something invisible, ethereal, not material, and that has to come from within. For this type of person to do that, they have to reveal what is within them, and it is darkness and weakness, and that is their biggest fear.