He died to His heavenly estate as God to become a man.
He even died as a man for man kind.

Essentially He died twice – To become anything less than God would mean He died twice. Once when He left heaven to become a man. And Once when he left earth as a man to once again stand in Heaven as our God.

I. Uncommon Christmas text.

A. No shepherds. No wise men. Not even Mary and Joseph.

B. Gives background of Christmas from God's perspective.

II. What Jesus was.

A. He was "in very nature God." 2:6

1) The New Testament claims Jesus was the agent of Creation.

a) Some feel "angel of Lord" who wrestled with Jacob and

passed by Moses would be Jesus.

b) He has always existed, and reigned in heaven.

2) The New Testament claims Jesus is divine - God the Son.

a) Jesus cannot be limited to a nice man or even a stirring

prophet.

b) He claimed to be God, and he did things that only God was

supposed to do, like forgive sins.

c) Jesus claimed he was the ONLY way to the Father. Jn 14:1-6

d) If he is not God, then he is a liar or a lunatic.

3) God living as a man is not that hard to fathom

As you and I are eternal beings who live in mortal flesh.
So it is with Christ who also is eternal, who chose to live in mortal flesh.

B. Yet Jesus did not consider divinity "something to be grasped." But rather
experienced by being in the presence of divinity.
Even the angels as they circle the throne of God experience the Holiness of God as they view him from all sides and they cry out HOLY HOLY HOLY

1) Jesus gave up the privileges and rights of God to become

one of us.

III. What Jesus became.

A. He made himself nothing; literally, he "emptied himself."

1) Traditional images of Christmas - a baby who doesn't

cry, who glows in the dark, who wears a crown as people

worship him. (old icons, paintings)

2) Reality was that Jesus gave all this up when he became

human. He knew tears, darkness and humiliation.

B. How far did the "emptying" go?

1) Give up divinity to become merely human?

a) Philosophy behind movie "The Last Temptation of Christ."

b) Jesus did give up some knowledge (of Second Coming) and

glory (cf. Transfiguration) but not deity.

2) "Nature of a servant" follows, and defines meaning. 2:7

a) Jesus could have ruled the world, but chose to serve.

b) Literally, he became a house-slave.

C. The real Jesus would not have been very appealing to us.

1) Nothing to make us want him - Isaiah 53:1-5.

2) He would have done poorly in the polls.

3) Only people with faith recognized Jesus, others ignored him.

IV. Why he did it.

A. Jesus emptied himself to become one of us.

It is said that Henry David Thoreau once spent a whole day in

Walden Pond up to his neck in the water.

His idea was to see and experience the world as a frog sees it!

He shared the experience, but not the reality.

Thoreau did not become a frog!

"Sesame Street" is closer to the Christmas story.

They had a skit one time of the old fairy tale of the princess and

the frog.

In the Sesame Street version the princess kissed the frog, and

then turned into a frog herself.

(Sort of like Diana and Charles...when she kissed the prince she turned into
a princess)

That is closer to what we celebrate at Christmas.

God did not swoop down and survey the human situation from a

safe distance.

He emptied Himself.

He lay aside His celestial robes to put on the simple clothes

of a man.

Divinity clothed itself with human dust ( flesh).

B. Jesus emptied himself to deal with our sins. Isaiah 53:5

V. What it means for us.

A. Jesus is God, and we need to obey him.

Kenneth Kantzer:

Many Christians only pay lip service to the truth of Christmas.

To accept the idea that the Bethlehem babe really is the incarnate God is
to alter every truth with which we comfortably live.

To say that Jesus Christ really is the incarnation of the living God is to say that his testimony and life is unalterably true. When I go against his teachings, I am not merely asserting my own judgment, but that I am fundamentally in error.

B. Jesus humbly served; we should serve in the same way.

1) Christmas is supposed to be GIVING more than GETTING.

2) Our world is still crying with many needs.

Vietnamese family Paul Thigpen's family was sponsoring had

sick child on Christmas Eve. They called him in desperation.

He resented it, but went anyway. Vietnamese mother was grateful,
celebration went off OK anyway.

He realized Christ was crying out to him in that little child.

Jesus is present in the needs of people we serve.

The Vietnamese people later gave them a joyous banquet.

"Someone has wisely said that the place where God calls us