Philippians 2:1-11 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of

the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one
accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each
esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the
interests of others. 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did
not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a
bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly
exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The early Church considered Humility to be the Distinct factor for Christian Leaders that separated the
Christian leader from all other leaders in their time.

SL2
(G.K Chesterton—Fable of two brothers.)

2 BROTHERS were playing in a field and along came a magic man. He granted them a wish.

The first brother wished to be a giant as tall as the clouds. He wondered the world. He went to the Himalayas
and they looked small and silly. He went to Niagara and the falls looked like a bathtub faucet.

He eventually laid down bored and disappointed and went to sleep.

The second brother wished to be tiny- no more than one inch tall.

The roses looked like trees with suns as the head, the blades of grass an exciting jungle and he lived a life of
adventure.

SL3
HIS SUMMERY: The evil of PRIDE consists in being out of proportion to the universe (G.K. Chesterton—
Tremendous Trifles)

Becoming great or bigger than everyone or everything else is not the optimum position to live.

SL4
HUMILITY: Is the luxurious act of reducing ourselves to a point so that to it all the cosmic things are what
they really are—of immeasurable stature (G.K Chesterton)

Seeking to become lower than everyone else so that you can become great!

The idea here is that the smaller I become, the greater those around me become. The more there gifts and talents
begin to be seen.

The question is: do you want to be a big leader or a small leader?

You can make yourself big or you can make yourself small

the real answer is: you become big, by becoming small!

The term humility is an often misunderstood word.

• It is an ancient concept and characteristic trait.
• It has been embraced and rejected.
• I has been researched, loathed and lauded.

In fact, historically, the word for “humility” was a negative term.

When we go back to the ancient Roman days during the time the New Testament was written:

The literal translation of the word “humble” was “low to the ground” or “of the dirt”.

When a person would state that you are HUMBLE: They were stating that you were as low as a piece of DIRT!

For the Roman world, it was an insult to call someone humble.

How we as Christians become smaller—so that others become greater.

ASK—Do I want to be a big leader or a Small leader. You become Big by becoming small.

Humility throughout History has seen both good and bad idea. Humble means to be of the dirt. To be as low as
a piece of dirt.

SL5
The Roman culture of New Testament times could be defined as an honor obsessed, power hungry,
promotion consumed society.

SL6
1. HONOR OBSESSED

The culture of the New Testament was an honor/shame culture. The currency of the day was not measured in
money, instead it was measured in honor.

Honor shame Culture—SEEKING OF HONOR ABOVE ALL ELSE. It is not about gains monetarily but by
the way one seeks personal Honor. SEEK THE STATUS OF HONOR

You desired to gain honor at any cost.

You would do this by distancing yourself from anyone or anything shameful and gravitate toward anything that
would bring honor.

If you associated with those of SHAMEFUL character or actions, this only increased your SHAME—this was
not a good thing.

The currency of the day was not measured in money, instead it was measured in honor. You desired to gain
honor at any cost.

SL7
This pursuit of honor would guide every decision—business partners, friendship networks, and even who
was allowed at the meal table. The Roman Empire thrived on power, honor, force, and promotion.

This cause the leadership style to be one of power dominance. Constant boasting, brute power, ruling over
people- never showing vulnerability or weakness.
SL8
2. POWER HUNGRY
Leaders were power hungry. The most powerful were the most promoted.

Get HONOR AT ahead at any cost. Because you were seeking POWER!

SL9
3. Promotion Consumed—

Every leader clamored to follow the “cursus honorum” The course of honors: succession of offices of
increasing importance

SL10
Course of honor was the course of offices that would be followed by someone pursuit of an elite political
career. This cause was not only available to the most elite individuals, but it was also duplicated in rural
areas, clubs, local municipalities, and among the non-elites.

This obsession of advancement and public acknowledgement produced a culture that clamored for
acknowledgement and advancement at any cost.

This thinking had also made its way into the church communities.

Jesus and his early followers offered a radical alternative to this course of honor.

SL11
(VIDEO—Climbing the Ladder)

CLIMBING THE LADDER—

Anthropologist discovered that in Roman culture, not only in governmental affairs, but even in the
municipalities there was this HONOR AT ANY COST mentality.

SL12
SEE THE COURSE OF HONOR EXAMPLE
At each level you disassociate with the less honorable and seek the more desirable and Honorable to gain a
higher level or rung on the ladder. The whole point was to climb the ladder to gain promotion.

QUAESTOR: A magistrate who could be appointed to administrative duties

AEDILE: an official in ancient Rome in charge of public works and games, police, and the grain supply

PRAETOR: a senior Roman magistrate of senatorial rank. Praetors served as judges, commanders in the army,
managers of the senate treasury, supervisors of the roads, of grain distribution, or of public works, or as
governors of provinces. A person was eligible for praetorship at age thirty if he had served in the lower offices
of the cursus honorum (Lat., ‘career of honors,’ i.e., a public career). It was usual for an individual to have held
three appointments as praetor before becoming a consul. Jesus was scourged in the praetor’s residence
(‘Praetorium’) by Roman soldiers (Mark 15:16–20

CONSUL: a governor of a province in ancient Rome.

CENSOR: Roman magistrate, from censēre to give as one’s opinion, assess. A person who supervises conduct
and morals
PAUL AND THE EARLY CHURCH
It is into this honor obsessed, power hungry, promotion consumed culture that the apostle Paul unveils the early
church leadership plan that was absolutely revolutionary and counter-culture.

It turned the leadership landscape on its head. The early church re-imagined humility as something very positive
instead of something negative.

They envisioned humility as the ability to serve the lowly, to get underneath others and lift them up. To opt out
of the promotion obsessed culture and descend into greatness.

The early church re-imagined humility as something very positive instead of something negative.

They envisioned humility as the ability to serve the lowly, to get underneath others and lift them up.

To opt out of the promotion obsessed culture and descend into greatness.

The Early Church and the Apostle Paul. the idea was to descend into Greatness.

This verse is the Absolute Definition of Biblical HUMILITY

SL13
Philippians 2:5-6 5In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus
had:6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own
advantage;

SL14
Philippians 2:7-8 7rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human
likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a human being, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death
—even death on a cross!

SL15
Philippians 2:9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every
name

Many New Testament Scholars believe that this is the oldest New Testament Passage we have today. This was
possibly the earliest teaching on what a Christian leader should look like within the culture

This is actually a QUOTE that Paul makes…Meaning that he is QUOTING something that is older than HIM.

Many believe that this is the earliest form of teaching on Christian Leadership. Possibly a HYNM that was sung
in the Early Church to reinforce in the oral tradition what it meant to be a Christian Leader.
THEY WOULD DECLARE THAT THIS IS WHAT CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP LOOKS LIKE IN THIS
CULTURE!

SO WHAT PAUL DOES, IS HE SENDS JESUS INTO A DESCENDING TO GREATNESS

SL16

CURSUS PUDORUM= Course of Shame

Jesus found himself with all power!

The most envious position the Roman leader could imagine-

SL17
1. Equal to God.

The scriptures show that Jesus did something fascinating with this power- He “did not consider it something to
be held tightly.”

“did not consider equality with God something to be grasped”

LETS Unpack THIS:

JESUS achieved greatness by relinquishing His power.

JESUS achieved Prestige by giving Himself away

This was a radical new way to live ones life.

Instead of gaining all the Power and Honor by doing what every one could to rise to the TOP, Jesus showed that
if you want to be great—
YOU HAVE TO GET LOWER TO THE DIRT
YOU HAVE TO DESEND
YOU HAVE TO GET AS LOW AS POSSIBLE (Servant)

SL18
2. KENOSIS— Jesus EMPTIED HIMSELF—the relinquishment of divine attributes by Jesus Christ in
becoming human.

(TAKE A GLASS OR PITCHER-FULL OF WATER and EMPTY IT OUT)

SL19
3. SERVANT—The Decent downward.

SL20
4. EMBRACING HUMANITY—He was born as a Baby (the most vulnerable) Nothing to offer, NO
POWER
SL21
5. HUMILITY—HE HUMBLED HIMSELF

SL22
6. The Point of death—This was not low enough

SL23
7. death on a cross—The worst kind of death, the death of a common criminal.

Here Jesus is seen as the one who has the greatest amount of HONOR to becoming the one with the greatest
amount of SHAME.

Jesus embraced his SHAMEFULNESS every step of the way, lowering himself.

Jesus leveraged HIS POWER for all people—ALL THE WAY TO THE GRAVE

SO I CAN LIFT OTHER UP!

I AM GOING TO LEVERAGE THAT POWER TO INCREASE THEIR HONOR INSTEAD OF MY OWN!!

JESUS was saying: I AM GOING TO BECOME SHAMEFUL SO YOU CAN HAVE HONOR!—that is what
christian leadership looks like.

SL24
Philippians 2:9-11 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every
name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those
under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father

But Jesus was exalted after his descent. He descended into greatness. He achieved Power by giving His Power
away.

He achieved HONOR by becoming SHAMEFUL!

DON’T Get the wrong Idea of HUMILITY—It is not weakness or powerlessness.

TO GIE YOUR POWER AWAY—TAKES BRAVERY, COURAGE, AND A COMMITMENT TO A

VISION TO HELP OTHER PEOPLE!

A fascinating thing happens next. Paul, in chapter 3, shows how he personally mimicked Christs behavior. Let’s
read Philippians 3:4

This is not WEAKNESS—It is Powerful and Brave.

SL25
THIS IS WHAT PAUL REVEALS
In Philippians 3:2-6 …though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have
reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more! 5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I
am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was
one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6 I was so zealous
that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.
SL26
This was Pauls Course of Honor. In his opinion he was faultless. Yet, He then goes on and says to the people:

“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the
eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a
Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”

SL27
Philippians 3:7-10 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also
count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from
God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul did not just teach this—HE LIVED IT! He lived a life of DECENT rather than one of the Culture—
ACCENT.

So Paul says I tried the course of honor, then I decided to descend into greatness.

John Dicskon says that when Jesus died on a cross the early Christians only logically had two options.

Either he was not as great as they first thought, his crucifixion being evidence of his insignificance, or the
notion of greatness itself had to be refined to fit with the fact of his seemingly shameful end.

SL28
Dickson concludes: book Humilitas “Christians took the second opinion. For them the crucifixion was not
evidence of Jesus’ humiliation but proof that greatness can express itself in humility, the noble choice to
lower yourself for the sake of others.”

CLOSING:

SL29
So what do we do with this info?

When you find yourself with any amount of power or influence leverage it for those who have less power
or influence.
—easy to say, harder to do!

I want to close by taking you back to our original story. The two boys who had a wish. One wished to become
big and one wished to become small.

SL30
You can be big!
“The evil of Pride consists in being out of proportion to the universe” G.K. Chesterton
• Do you see yourself so big in your own mind that other people cannot contribute?
• Do you think of yourself more important than and the best on the TEAM
• No one can contribute as good as you
HAVE YOU MADE YOURSELF TOO BIG?

Or

SL31
You can be small
“Humility is the luxurious art of reducing ourselves to a point, not to a small thing or a large one, but to a
thing with no size at all, so that to it all the cosmic things are what they really are—of immeasurable
stature.” G.K. Chesterton

HAVE YOU LEARNED THE LUXURIOUS ART OF MAKING YOURSELF SO SMALL AND GIVING
YOUR INFLUENCE AND LEVERAGING YOUR POWER ON BEHALF OF OTHER SO THAT THEY
BECOME BIGGER..

WHERE THE POTENTIAL OF OTHERS IS GREATER THAN YOUR OWN.

It is my prayer that you may begin to understand the power of being small, of leveraging your influence for
others, and falling in love with the luxurious art of reducing yourself to a point so that everyone around you is
held with immeasurable stature.

THE GREAT TAKE AWAY—When You find yourself with any amount of power or influence leverage it
for those who have less power or influence.