Insight for Living

Guest (Male): He was one of the most recognizable voices in American sports, a celebrity who called professional football games for decades. But behind the fame, Pat Summerall was slowly dying. Alone on a bathroom floor, choking on his own brokenness, Pat finally ran out of places to hide. What he discovered next changed everything.

Jesus said, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Not a sermon, not a finger pointed in shame, just rest. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll reminds us that grace doesn't lecture, it stoops, and it rescues.

Chuck Swindoll: Love that reaches up is adoration. Love that reaches out is affection. But love that stoops is grace. It isn't complete until you get to the part where he stoops and picks us up and puts us on our feet.

It's with that symbol in mind we turn to Philippians chapter two and look at these verses that are truly, as one man wrote, the greatest and most moving passage Paul ever wrote about Jesus. Greatest and most moving passage Paul ever wrote about Jesus.

Just as a beautiful diamond needs a setting for it to serve a practical purpose, so verses of scripture need the context, the setting. Now this setting is about thinking along the same lines. See verse one? If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation of love, any fellowship of the spirit, any affection and compassion, make my joy complete. Look closely by being of the same mind.

If you think together, you'll get along together. If you think about the same things the same way together, you'll have a closeness of fellowship, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. In fact, he goes further, and I can feel that long index finger of the apostle pounding against my sternum as he says, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.

But with humility of mind, we're back to our thinking. With humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. That is Christianity in a nutshell. Those of us who are unselfish and do not are not driven by empty conceit, who possess a humility of mind, God help us all to go there, who regard one another as more important than ourselves. We don't look out for our own personal interests, we look out for the interests of others.

And Paul suddenly thinks, I need an example. I need an illustration. We say as the colloquialism of our time, I need a for instance. For example, and that leads him to the classic illustration of Jesus. Not surprisingly, he shows us Jesus in his condescension from heaven to earth, from the throne room of God to the cross in the verses that follow.

Now, this section is magnificent because it covers three facets of a scene that boggles the mind. In no other scene in scripture are you able to get into the mind of the crucified one like here. This is the best section. It describes him before he came to earth, verse six. It describes in his coming as a servant, verse seven and the early part of verse eight, and then it describes his sacrifice on a cross, end of verse eight.

Let's go before his incarnation. Referring to Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God. Form of God. The Greek term is morphe, M-O-R-P-H-E. We have it in the middle of our word metamorphosis. In its original term, it meant the essential form that doesn't change. Keep that in mind.

There's another word that is often translated form and it's schema, S-C-H-E-M-A. We got our word scheme from it. They're different. Schema represents a form that changes. You say what? So, let me explain it further. We are in form human beings. We are not less or more than; we are human beings. From conception until death, we are human beings. That's our morphe.

However, our schema is described in the stages we've been through as human beings. We began as small as a period at the end of the sentence. Cynthia taught me that when she was pregnant with our children. That little thing inside me is the size of a period at the end of a sentence. So we began as an embryo, and then we grow to a fetus, and then we become a newborn. Our schema is changing.

The newborn becomes a little baby. And as we begin to walk and talk and eat, or at least feed ourselves, we become little children. Our schema is changing. Little children grow into young pre-teenagers and then finally teenagers, and then young adults, and then adults, and then middle adults, and then ornery adults. You reach a final stage of ornery where you are growing older. Your schema keeps changing but your morphe remains human.

Back to the verse. Who although he existed in the unchanging deity, the form of God. Second part of the verse is equally important. He did not regard equality with God something to clutch, something to cling to, but he released that privileged position.

Now, don't think for a moment he stopped being God. That's where the cults will take you away from the truth. He's just a man when he came to this earth and as a man he was subject to all the things of humanity, including sin. Wrong. As God he knew no sin, did no sin, had no sin. Scripture states that. I love that translation in the New American Standard Bible. The verb means to clutch.

If you're in a crowd and a thief is running through the group and grabs your purse, ladies, he will or she will clutch the purse and run. It's the word used of a thief or a robber clutching something. But in this case, it isn't a robber, it's God himself. Jesus, the son of God, existing in the unchanging deity of his essence, he did not regard that position in heaven something he would clutch and hold on to and not release.

Why? Because he's humble of heart. Because to come to our rescue, he couldn't remain in heaven. So the plan of salvation required his giving up his will and releasing what had been his privileged position. And if you want to think of something remarkable, imagine that. The resplendent glory of the throne room of the Godhead, surrounded by the presence angels and the seraphim who flood the throne of God with their praises, having no need, knowing no pain, experiencing no rejection or mistreatment, he existed in that ideal place as God.

But he said to the Father, yes, I will go. Unless you go, there will not be a sacrifice. I will be that sacrifice. So he did not regard it something to clutch. And so what did he do? Well, he became a servant, expressed very clearly at the beginning of verse seven. He emptied himself.

All sorts of theories called the kenotic theory, K-E-N-O-T-I-C, kenotic, from the Greek term kenosis, which is the word for emptying, translated here in that word. Of what did he empty himself? J.B. Lightfoot says he divested himself. But of what? Did he stop being God? What did he empty himself of? If you carry a Ryrie study Bible, you will see in the footnote this sentence, very helpful sentence.

It does not mean he surrendered any attributes of deity but that he took on the limitations of humanity. What wonderful words. Wonderful description. Without releasing any of his deity, he took on all the limitations of humanity. More specifically, he voluntarily set aside the independent use of his divine attributes. When he became a man, undiminished deity in true humanity, one person called the incarnation. The incarnation.

God in flesh. For the first time ever and never to be changed, deity became humanity. True humanity, true humanity. No play acting. He wasn't part angel sprouting wings, didn't have a halo, didn't glow, didn't walk around in a white robe, spotless sandals, going ooh, mmm, ah, cross hanging around his neck. No, that's all caricature. Had he walked on this earth today and were doing what he came to do, you wouldn't pick him out as anyone different. Just another human being. In this case, another Jewish adult.

Another Jewish baby grew to be a teenager, grew to be an adult. Most of us are older than he ever became on this earth. Amazing. True man. What does that mean? It means, it means when he cried, his cheeks were wet with tears. Means when he was working in the carpenter shop and cut himself, it means he bled.

It means when he slept, he snored. How's that? You hadn't thought of that before, had you? It means when he stumbled with his toe, he fell. It means when his heart was broken, he grieved. It means when he was tired, he went to bed. It means when he was hungry, he ate food. When he was thirsty, he drank liquids. He eliminated them just as we do. He was true humanity.

However, he was God. He was the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. Look at the picture that Paul paints. No time to develop it all. I wish I could. He emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of a man, found in appearance as a man.

Here's our word again. He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even a cross kind of death. Obedient to whom? The Father. Death, death, death. Death, death. Heart stopped beating.

But not just any death. The absence of a definite article is significant. Not on the cross, but on a cross. If your version reads the cross, it's a misstatement. It should read a cross. Obedient to death on a cross. When there is an absence of a definite article, the emphasis falls on the quality of the subject. A cross kind of death. All that a cross represented was his to endure.

F.F. Bruce puts it in words you will never forget. It is difficult for us after so many centuries during which the cross has been venerated as a sacred symbol, to realize the unspeakable horror, the disgust, that the mention, the very thought of the cross provoked. In polite Roman society, the word cross was an obscenity, not to be uttered in conversation.

This utterly vile form of punishment was that which Jesus endured, and by enduring it, he turned that shameful instrument of torture into the object of his followers' proudest boast. Paul wrote, as for me, I will boast only about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, Galatians 6:14. An incomprehensible turning upside down of all the accepted values of his day. It was an obscenity.

In our day, it's jeweled and finds its way around the necks of women and men. In our day, sometimes the most decorative part of a church is a cross. How incorrect. When we were designing this building, I had very little to do with most of it. That's why it looks so great. I kept my hands out of it.

But I had a lot to do with the cross. No special super-duper lighting. No bronze. No glistening glitter. Keep the sandpaper off of the wood. Let's use timber that's rugged. No stain. No finish. Let's hang it so that it's clearly obvious. Not to worship, but to remind us. It's a symbol. And we have done that.

It weighs perhaps 450, 500 pounds. The vertical is 14 feet long and the horizontal about 8 feet across. The leather straps in the middle came from an idea I saw in Jerusalem where, as accurate as I could research it, the crossbeam was strapped to the vertical beam. He only carried the crossbeam. He couldn't carry that much weight. The crossbeam is about 200 pounds. He dragged that. And when that found its way to the cross, it was strapped onto the vertical because other victims would be used, so they would unstrap it and have another victim carry the crossbeam and on and on we could go.

May I shock you? It might be even more vivid if we would hang there an electric chair, or a syringe used in capital punishment. It is an instrument of horror, so disgusting to his culture and day you didn't even use the word cross in sophisticated societies. Even death on a cross.

It is a dreadful thing. It is a vile thing. Why do I camp on it like this? Because it's on that cross he screamed in agony, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You don't think of this scream coming from the lips of Jesus unless you understand it was on a cross kind of death he died. And the Savior was bearing your sins and my sins, the sins of the world. And the Father, for the first and only time in their existence together, turned his back. And Jesus felt in that agonizing moment the abandonment that sin brought. That's when he bore all the sins of the world.

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and I pour contempt on all my pride. Of course. Who else has died for you? No one. Who else paid the complete penalty for you, your sins, your wife, your husbands, your family, your children, your grandparents and back and back and forward and forward? No one. No one. Even death on a cross.

Charles Wesley put it well. ’Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies! Is it any wonder that when he left us a symbol, he left it a series of actions done without words? I've run out of words. I can't go any further. As it should be. When you're in the presence of that kind of humility, you are dumbstruck. You sit and stare, and you should.

He gave us a piece of bread to use. I received of the Lord that which also he had given to me, writes Paul. The night in which he was betrayed he took bread, and having given thanks, he broke it and he said, here, take this and eat in remembrance of me. In the same manner also he took the cup and looked at the wine in the cup and said, this liquid represents my blood. Drink it in remembrance of me. Fools that came in later days called Christians cannibals, drinking the blood of Jesus. Please. These are symbols. We don't worship the bread, we don't worship the cup, we don't worship the wooden cross. We worship the Savior.

And because he has done this for us, two questions have to be answered when we come to the table. First, are we clean? And second, why not? It doesn't matter what church you're a part of, it doesn't matter what your age or gender is, it doesn't matter your roots or the debauched life you may have lived or rather good life. Doesn't matter. We're all rotten, stinking sinners. That's all we are. We're no better than Pat Summerall hanging over the toilet there in Augusta, Georgia, throwing out his guts. I have no feeling of shame whatsoever. I have a feeling of gratitude that he would even have the courage to write it for every one of us addicted to something could read.

Are my hands or is my heart clean? If I know Jesus, if I'm walking with him, yes. If I don't know him, no. This is for the Lord's people. I didn't set up the rules. So if you don't know Christ and you choose not to receive him, don't take the elements. Why would you? But if you know him and you're walking in the light, why would you let them pass? We embrace the bread, the cup.

So the real issue is where are you today in light of the cross? Let's bow our heads together. I'd like you to just sit quietly for a few moments as some of you trust Christ as your Savior, others of you find cleansing.

Thank you, Father, for the cross. Thank you for the one who died for us there, for that sacred head now wounded with grief and shame weighed down. Thank you for the bread, the body of our Savior, given in humility for us. We love you, Father. Thank you for the table. Thank you for our Savior's blood that keeps on cleansing us from all sin. That divine detergent that washes us clean inside and out.

We worship you, our Father, and we thank you for the plan that required the blood of the Lamb. Our Father, meet with us in a very special way during this time of silent meditation. May we be lost in the thought of the one who left heaven and died on a cross kind of place. In his matchless name we pray. Amen.

Guest (Male): The servant who came didn't arrive with fanfare or demand recognition. He emptied himself, took the form of a bondservant, and died the vilest death imaginable, all to rescue broken people like you and me. That's not religion, that's grace. And if you've never surrendered your life to the one who paid it all, today is the day.

This is Insight for Living. We'll hear a closing comment from Chuck Swindoll in just a moment, so please stay with us. First, a quick reminder that Insight for Living has prepared a Bible study to help you understand more about the attributes of God. This spiral-bound Searching the Scriptures workbook is called How Great is Our God and contains all twelve studies from Chuck. To learn more, go to insight.org/offer.

In a moment, I'll tell you about a brand-new booklet Chuck's written about the power of the cross. You see, the cross not only represents our salvation in Christ, but when we focus on the cross of Christ, it becomes our compass every single day. Chuck?

Chuck Swindoll: You might not remember the name Roy Riegels. If not, Roy was a football player and in the 1929 Rose Bowl, he picked up a fumble and took off running, fast, confident, strutting toward the goal line. Absolutely certain he knew where he was going. Guess what? He was headed in the wrong direction. A 70-yard sprint headed the wrong way.

Oh man, can't you just picture it? His own teammate had to chase him down. And when that teammate finally caught up with him, Roy shouted, I love this, get away from me! This is my touchdown! He was convinced. But Roy was dead wrong.

Well, I've spent a lifetime in ministry, and I can tell you, that story never gets old because it never stops being true. Sincere people, well-meaning people, people who love God and work hard and mean every word of their prayers, running the wrong direction. Why? Because somewhere along the way, they lost sight of the cross.

The cross reorients everything. When it's in clear focus, you know which goal line is which. You know what matters and what doesn't. You know how to live. That's what Insight for Living is all about. Every broadcast, every resource, every message we send into the world has one purpose: to point people back to the cross. Not to me, not to this program, but to the cross.

And here's something I want you to understand as we approach June 30th, the end of our fiscal year. Every gift that comes in doesn't just keep Insight for Living on the air. It sends you into the world as a minister of this message. Through radio, through the internet, through social media and printed materials, reaching people on every continent. You cast that seed. We just get to watch God grow it. Please give today, generously. The world needs the right direction.

Bill Meyer: Yes, the world needs the right direction. To respond to Chuck Swindoll, call us at 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org/donate. Plus, when you respond with a much-appreciated gift today, we'll say thanks by providing a brand-new booklet from Chuck. It's called The Cross We Proclaim.

In his booklet, Chuck shows us how easy it is to run in the wrong direction, even with our best intentions. But here's the point. Whether chasing achievement, reputation, or religious performance, the cross can reorient your life. Let us send you The Cross We Proclaim. The deadline June 30th is this coming Tuesday. To send a check in the mail, address your donation to Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034. You can also call 800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org/donate.

I'm Bill Meyer. Chuck Swindoll presents a transparent message about the price we pay to take up our cross and follow Jesus, Thursday on Insight for Living.