• There are two seemingling contradictory qualities about God
  • His distance and his closeness
  • “Distance” does not really convey it, it’s more of his distance in an upwards direction.
• Theologians use the terms:

• even bigger contrast:

• God doesn’t give us this all at once
• If he told us first about his humility, we wouldn’t appreciate how amazing it was because we wouldn’t know how far he had to stoop!
• The fullest revelation of God’s humility doesn’t come until the NT with Jesus Christ.

1. Old Testament

• Let’s start by what God told us of his character in the O.T.
  • what we call God’s “transcendence” —he is infinitely higher than us

• God’s response to Job

• But even in the O.T. there are hints of God’s humility:
  • He walked in the Garden with Adam & Eve
  • He met with Abraham and made promises to him
  • He met Moses face to face and even allowed Moses to reason with him and disagree with him

• But the O.T. is like a dark and shadowy room compared with the brightness of the N.T.
  • Hundreds of prophecies told of a coming age when everything would be clear
  • When Ford or GM want to launch a radically new model of car…
  • A few years ago there was a radically new kind of computer launched on the internet:
    • First a picture of it was posted with the computer covered up
    • and then every day it was shown with a bit more of it showing
      • the internet was full of discussion and speculation
    • finally it was all revealed
  • It was the same with the coming of the Messiah
    • The Jews were excited about the prophecy
    • He would sit on the throne of David
    • He would destroy the enemies of God
    • He would restore the glory to the people of God

2. The Coming of Jesus

• and then what happened… The Coming of Jesus
  • Jesus left his place at the side of God (because he is equal with God)
  • was born into a very poor family, born into the dirt of an animal feeding trough
  • What a shock! —so much of a shock that most of the Jews refused to believe
• Jesus is the full revelation of God.
  • It is through HIM that we know what God is like

• (also Heb 1:1, 2a; 3a)
• So what was revealed when the covers were taken off?
  • A wealthy and powerful king
  • no, a man who had nowhere to sleep at night
• Someone who distanced himself from all but the most pure in society?
  • no, a man who called himself the “friend of sinners”
• Something seems to have gone terribly wrong!!
  • Is this really God’s fullest and greatest revelation of himself?
• They were offended by Jesus:
  • He ate with notorious sinners
  • He allowed a prostitute to wash his feet to the shock and horror of the Pharisees
  • He talked to an immoral woman at Samaria, breaking three rules at once:
    • Jews don’t talk to the Samaritan heretics
    • Men don’t talk to women alone
    • Religious leaders don’t associate with immoral sinners
• Even when he took an interest in little children, they were upset because this should have been beneath his dignity.
• Jesus told the parable of the wedding feast, where all the nice respectable people ended up not coming, and we read:

3. The Cross, and the Offence

• But then the climax of Jesus revelation of what God is like, came on the cross.
  • He suffered the worst kind of indignity and shame
  • The cross was calculated to bring shame and indignity of the worst kind
  • But when Jesus hung naked on the cross, exposed to the ridicule of his enemies, dying out of love for his people, dying in their place,
    • at that point was he most clearly revealing the true character of God!
• Are you offended by the thought of Jesus Christ, God the Son, hanging in shame on the cross?
  • The Jews were offended.

• The Glory
  • Yet the extraordinary truth: Jesus describes this shameful death as his glory!
  • Christ brought glory to the father in many ways, but his death was the climax, the ultimate glory

• and then turn over to chapter 13, verse 30–

• and then in chapter 17:1

• Why has God chosen to reveal his glory in such a surprising way?
  • Because this is actually his character and he wants it to be shown forth.
  • The very character of God is not to be proud, but to be humble.
    • His very character is to reach out to the unlovely and lost.
  • The crucifixion was not some unfortunate but necessary aberration of God’s plan
    • It was the very high point in the revelation of his glory—the God who loves and reaches out to those he loves no matter the humiliation!
• Now this truth is not only offensive to some,
  • but it is hard to understand even to us who love him.
    • How can God at the same time be the God whom the angels have to shield their faces to see, and the God who ate with sinners?
  • It seems to be a contradiction in terms for God to be humble!
  • How can the infinite creator God, awesome and majestic, be humble??
• One of the criticisms that Muslims have of Christianity is that our God does not make sense:
  • 3 persons in one, God becoming man, and so on.
    • Islam is logical.
  • But the very fact that we cannot completely understand God is evidence that Christianity is not a man-made religion.
  • Our view of God is revealed, not man-made. We are finite and of course we cannot fully comprehend him.
• But having said that, there is a way that we can begin to see God’s awesome holiness and his humility reconciled together.
  • When Jesus died, the temple veil was torn from top to bottom.
  • His coming, in a way that we cannot fully understand,
    • has allowed us to go freely into the presence of this awesome God. Heb 10:19-20 says:
  “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
  by a new and living way which he consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, his flesh”
• Does this mean we forget about God’s awesome majesty and terrifying purity?
  • Of course it does not, because this aspect of God’s character is just as true, and needed to show the greatness of his humility.

4. Our Response

• So what should we do as a church to show God’s glory in this way we are commanded?
  • What kind of God are we reflecting?
• Throughout history, churches have tended to emphasize one or the other, God’s humility or his transcendence.
  • Which does this do?

• Back in England we have many beautiful cathedrals that were built centuries ago by a wealthy church that took money of people in grinding poverty. When people point out to me their beauty…
• We must not let go of God’s awesome majesty, but we must make every effort we possibly can to show him as the friend of sinners.
  • When people come into our midst who are not clean, who carry the marks of their sin
  • I have been in churches that make them very uncomforable
  • we don’t see them as marring the perfection of our worship services, but as opportunities for God to be glorified.
• The biggest emphasis on our humility in the N.T. is to one another
• In John 15 he tells us that when we bear the fruit of sacrificial love for one another, it is “By this that my father is glorified”

read Philippians passage 2:5-11

• I challenge you to put this into practice
  • You are bringing glory to God like nothing else, when you make yourself humble!
• We saw last week how God does not respond to pride, but to humility
  • God will respond to your humble heart
• Not just an emotion (very ‘umble sir)
  • A servant heart!
• So part of our response is to reflect this aspect of God to others
• But the other part is that God wants us to approach him and share with him our innermost thoughts
  • He is not just the creator of the universe, but one who wants to be our dear friend and share our dreams.
  • This is so extraordinary, and so wonderful that it fills our hearts with joy.