Strathalbyn Church of Christ

Sermon Phil 2:3-11. Theme: The Servant Queen, and the King she served.

Sermon by Pastor David Williams. Strathalbyn Church of Christ.

25 Sept 2022.

Here is what I’ll be covering:

1. The servant Queen

2. King Jesus

- As Almighty God

- As humble servant

- As King of Kings

The Servant Queen

The Servant Queen, and the King she serves. This is the title of a book, published by the Bible Society.[1] To understand our servant Queen, we need to understand the King she served. As she said in her year 2000 Christmas message,

For me the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life.

This King she knew all her life. Her father, King George VI sang hymns to her at night. Her mother read bible stories. Her weekly lessons always began with a half hour of scripture teaching. Throughout her life, the Queen read her bible and prayed each day. She loved her bible.

At her coronation, she pledged to serve her people. But first she pledged to serve her King. She was presented with a Bible as the most valuable thing that this world affords. These words were striking as she next received the largest diamonds in the world.

This woman led the Commonwealth, one third of the world’s population.[2] She is the most famous woman on the planet. Yet she was humble. Despite being so famous, her humility could trip people up, even in her home town. There is the story of a shopkeeper in Windsor who said to a customer, Pardon me, but you look a lot like the Queen. To which her majesty replied with a smile, “How very reassuring”.

Faith in the King was key to who she was. In 2002 she said,

“I know just how much I rely on my faith to guide me through the good times and the bad… I know that the only way to live my life is to try and do what is right … and to put my trust in God … I draw strength from the message of hope in the Christian gospel.”

Wherever she was, her habit was to attend church. She always joined the local villagers in the Presbyterian church near Balmoral, entering silently through a side door. She didn’t expect people to stand for her there, but together they all stood - singing hymns to their King.

King Jesus

Her King is truly extraordinary. In today’s reading he went from having all power, to using none whatever, to again exercising all power.

Almighty God

First, he had all power. The reading begins,

Though Jesus Christ was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.

Jesus had all power and majesty – so he deserves the adoration and unconditional obedience of every human ever born. Why? Because he was God, our Creator. He was in very nature God. We owe our existence, our every breath to Jesus.

Humble servant

Yet the almighty God entered our world, our life, as one of us – as a slave no less. God became man. The reading continues:

7 Instead, he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave

and was born as a human being.
8 He humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

God and Man?

This is an important passage for understanding who Jesus was. Jesus was both God and man. The New Living Bible puts it simply:

Jesus Christ was God …

He was born as a human being.

As the Nicene Creed says, Jesus was truly God and truly man.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ … true God from true God …

by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

As Paul put it in Romans 1, he was both descended from David according to the flesh, and also declared son of God in power by his resurrection. There are dozens of passages that affirm that Jesus was both man and God. Not ½ God, ½ man, but fully God and fully man. Jesus always was, is and will be God. He became man when conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb and he has never given up his humanity. Today he reigns in heaven as both man and God. Friends, these are critical truths. Our salvation depends on the truth that Jesus is truly God and truly man. This is a topic for at least one more sermon. But don’t let the cults or liberal Christians confuse you on these points. The Bible is clear and we need to hold fast to these truths. The early church fathers rightly challenged the heretics of their day as they summarised the Bible’s teaching into the creeds.

God as man?

We cannot know how a God/man sort of person functions – no-one but Jesus has ever or will ever be in that position. Theologians will of course speculate and write thousands of pages on this. Yet all we know – all we need to know about it is spelt out in the scriptures, and in this passage especially.

He emptied himself – it doesn’t say of what. Some thought he emptied himself of his divine powers. But this cannot be so for in Colossians we read,

For in him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, Col 1:19.

Jesus didn’t stop being God. He remained fully God but chose to limit his divine powers so that he could become man.

7 Instead, he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave

and was born as a human being.

Rather than being present everywhere – omni-present – he had to confine himself to the space and time he occupied in Israel. Rather than being all knowing - omni-scient – he grew in knowledge of material and spiritual things. Some questions that he asked indicated that there were things he did not know. And rather than exercising unlimited power – omni-potence – he lived a human life, getting hungry and thirsty, tired and sick. He suffered like a man because he was fully man. He felt the same temptations that we do – to greed and pride, lust and laziness. He felt them yet resisted them.

The Queen was an exemplary monarch and servant. There has never been a scandal attached to her. In 70 years of very public service, she rarely lost her temper. Quite a record when some tennis players can’t even last a game without losing it. Yet even such a record pales in comparison with our King.

Jesus was unique. He was the best, bravest and humblest of men.

i. Best – because he never sinned.

ii. Bravest – for the agonies he experienced.

His death may not have been the most painful physical death ever experienced – but it was certainly the most painful emotionally and spiritually. For this sinless man took on the sins of the world – he became sin for us. The Queen knew this, in 1981, she said,

“Christ not only revealed to us the truth in his teachings. He lived by what he believed… On the cross, he showed the supreme example of physical and moral courage.”

iii. Humblest.

Never has the world seen such an act of humility as when God became man. Of all people, as God, as the best and bravest of men, surely Jesus was entitled to the greatest respect and honour. Yet he gave up all – his honour, his rights, life itself. He gave them up – not just for friends but for enemies.

7 Instead, he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave

and was born as a human being.
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Jesus arrived and departed this life in complete humility. As a tiny helpless baby, he was born in a cattle trough. He left this world in utter disgrace – hanging naked alongside criminals on a cross. Why did Jesus do this? His death was no accident. It was the very reason he came to our world. Jesus came to serve – like our Queen. But unlike her, he came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, Mt 20:28.

On that cross, he forgave his enemies, he forgave us. The Queen met with and forgave the Sinn Fein leaders, those complicit in the murder of her cousin, Lord Mountbatten. Jesus prayed that his father God would forgive those who were crucifying him. The Queen was right when she said in 2011, “Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith.”

The cross is the historical event where God forgave mankind. That cross was the central image on all her symbols of authority: her crown and sceptre, ring and orb. On that cross, Jesus defeated the greatest enemy of us all. He defeated death itself. He proved this by rising from death. After being seen by many eyewitnesses, he then ascended.

King of Kings

That is, he rose to greatest power. The reading concludes:

9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour
and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father

James was a young Aussie who happened to meet the queen.[3] He was selected at random to carry the mace at a Cathedral service. After the service, groups of the high and mighty were standing around and the PM led the Queen from one to another. As he did so, he scanned their name tags to get the titles right – you know, CEO of BHP, Attorney-General, Former Governor, the Right Hon Sir Truffy Fuddleduddles. That sort of thing. The PM glanced at James – no title, no rank, nothing – and quicky moved on. But her majesty stopped, turned around and walked right up to James. She said hello and began to talk. James, with nothing at all, felt on top of the world. But it didn’t end there. That evening, he was invited to a reception with hundreds of others. As the Queen went down the line, she stopped at James and said, I remember you. You carried that heavy mace.

Out of all the important people, the Queen chose James – a nobody – to speak with. And the Queen remembered him. Jesus chose us – he chose us before the creation of the world. He chose us when we had nothing at all to justify his choosing. He chose us because he loves us. And he remembers us too. We are written on the palm of his hand. We have been chosen and remembered by the King of Kings. I guess like most of you, I have never met the Queen. Though I did once see her from a distance. But one day, you and I will stand before the King of Kings. Will you be ready? Jesus Christ – this extraordinary man and God - this is the King the Queen served.

Our response?

What response can we possibly give to his sacrifice? Again, let us hear her Majesty’s advice: in 2012 she quoted a carol: What can I give him? I give him my heart.

Pray: King Jesus, thank you for the life of your servant, Elizabeth. Thank you for your life and your death for us all. King of Kings, I have nothing of any value to offer you. I give you my life. I give you my heart. Amen.

Sources

o Bird M. F. (2020). Evangelical theology : a biblical and systematic introduction (Second). Zondervan Academic.

o Erickson M. J. (2013). Christian theology (3rd ed.). Baker Academic.

o Motyer J. A. (2020). The message of Philippians : Jesus our joy. IVP.

o https://haventoday.org/blog/catherine-butcher-queens-faith/

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[1] Greene M. & Butcher C. (2016). The servant Queen and the King she serves. Bible Society.

[2] https://www.worlddata.info/alliances/commonwealth-of-nations.php#:~:text=The%2052%20current%20members%20of,33.17%25%20of%20the%20world%20population.

[3] https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-day-i-met-the-queen-and-what-it-showed-me-about-the-king-of-kings/

Series: Philippians

Topics: #Philippians , #Queen Elizabeth