Overview
Rev. Jon Ryan examines “How Important is Humility? Part 2” through Matthew 11, John 5, Mark 10, Matthew 23, showing how christ, says, humble shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Transcript
Understanding How Important is Humility? Part 2
Why is humility so important? Please turn to Matthew chapter 11. Previously we looked at some of what the word says about humility, and we saw some examples from David, the great man of God, David, and how humble he was. But tonight I want to look at the greatest man of all time, Jesus Christ, and see what we can learn about humility from him.
In Matthew chapter 11, and in verse 28, we read, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
So here, Jesus Christ, there’s no question that he was the smartest man that has ever lived. I mean, he had perfect blood. The only other person with perfect blood was Adam, and Jesus Christ came to pay the price for the mistake that Adam made.
If anyone could count on their own mental acumen, their own ability to reason things out, to think things through, to make directions, or to make a path, to choose a way to go, it would be Jesus Christ. There’s no question. And yet, turn to John chapter 5. Yet he had such confidence in God.
Now, he had confidence in himself, but it was only to the degree that God was working in him. And here you see it very clearly written in this Gospel of John, John chapter 5, verse 30. I can of mine own self do nothing.
As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me. Well, I’d say that’s a humble statement. I can of my own self do nothing.
The smartest man ever, you know, he could have succeeded and made a living in any field. He chose carpentry. His stepfather Joseph certainly taught him carpentry.
The Biblical Foundation
But he was yearning to learn about who God was as his father from the time he could begin to understand. His mother Mary and his stepfather Joseph would have taught him who he was, who his cousin John the Baptist was, would have taught him about the attacks that the enemy had from the time he was just a little over a year old, as laws were being passed to kill all the children in his community, all the male children two years and under, attempts to take him out. And yet he learned to develop great respect for God and for God’s Word.
And we see this as we look this, I mean so many places we could look, but go to Mark, the Gospel of Mark, and we’ll go to Mark chapter 10, just to touch on this a little bit. In Mark chapter 10, here Jesus Christ is being challenged. It says in verse 2, and the Pharisees came to him and asked him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife, tempting him? They were always tempting him.
They’d always come up with something where they thought they could trip Jesus Christ up. But he continues to answer them. He says, he answered in verse 3 and said unto them, what did Moses command you? He said, let’s go look at the Word.
And then they had this discussion back and forth, but they’re always trying to attack him. And look what it says in verse 17. And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus says unto him, why callest thou me good? There is none good, but one that is God.
Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, master, all these I have observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him, loved him and said unto him, one thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatever or whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shall have treasure in heaven and come and take up the cross and follow me.
Jesus Christ is loving this man. He’s inviting him to be part of his company. But see this man, he can’t receive it.
It says, and he was sad at that saying and went away grieved for he had great possessions. What he had amassed in his life was bigger than what Jesus Christ was offering to in his eyes. See, and Jesus Christ was just trying to take care of him.
Examples and Spiritual Lessons
See, immediately Jesus Christ said, there’s only one that’s good. Don’t call it, why calls me good? There’s one good, that’s God. See, he didn’t just pop the buttons off his coat when this guy came calling him good master.
He was trying to get this man’s attention that his life could be changed to be to onto the greatest path he could ever be on. Look at Matthew 23. It’s fun to look at these places to see the humility of Jesus Christ.
Here in Matthew 23, he’s teaching his followers about humility. Let’s pick it up in verse 10. Neither be ye called masters, for one is your master, even Christ.
But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased. And he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
He’s trying to teach them how important it is to be humble, to not elevate yourself. See, we’re to grasp onto this. Let’s go to the gospel of John, please.
The gospel of John, again, just this is an outstanding example. Go to chapter 13. Jesus Christ here is in his last hours.
He’s done the amazing miracles that are recorded in the gospels of Matthew and Mark and Luke and John. It says, as a matter of fact, it says at one point, if all the books were to be written about what Jesus Christ did, the world couldn’t contain the books. So he’s accomplished so much.
Faith in Action
And yet his heart’s desire from the very beginning, you read John chapter one, he says that he came to declare God, to make God known, to make his father known. And as he showed people the father, he showed them God’s love. He showed them God’s heart as he lived it, as he spoke for God, as he healed people.
And here at the very end of his life, before he’s to be arrested, just hours before he’s to be arrested, he’s arranged to have a special time with his closest followers. It’s Passover is fast approaching. He’s arranged a room for them to have the Passover, but he’s just realized that he’s not going to get to share the Passover with these men and women because he’s going to be the Passover sacrifice.
And so look what he decides with his last opportunity to teach. In the gospel of John chapter 13, verse one, now before the feast of Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come and that he should depart out of this world unto the father, having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God, he rises from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself.
After that, he pours water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. In that culture, in the Bible times, when you would enter a person’s house, if they had servants, the lowliest servant would have the job of washing your feet when you came in. And it was not just to wipe off the dirt because they walked around in sandals and so their feet would get dirty, but it was also symbolic to wash off the world, to don’t bring the world into this home.
We will wash off that, all that the world has caked on your feet, and then we can have a clean fellowship within. And so then he’s going to clean all their feet, and then verse 6, he cometh to Simon, Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? And Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. He’s teaching something.
Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. That’s a pretty strong statement.
Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith unto him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. It’s a symbolic thing.
Walking in Love and Confidence
But see, Jesus Christ is the one doing the washing. He didn’t call on Peter or some other disciple, hey, why don’t you get a basin of water and you wash all our feet. No, he is the one that’s doing the foot washing.
It goes on, it says in verse 11, For he knew who should betray him, therefore said he, ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me master and lord, and so you say, and ye say, well, for so am I, or so I am. If I then, your lord and master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if you do them.
My gosh, he knows he’s only got a short time, that he’s going to be the Passover sacrifice, that this is going to be a time that was written about in Isaiah, that he’s going to be so beaten you won’t be able to recognize him as a man. He knows that’s what he’s facing, and yet he takes this time, the most important thing, he takes this time, the most important thing for him to teach is to teach humility, to teach them to love each other without any reservation, to the very most, to the very limit. Look at Philippians chapter 2. Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians chapter 2. Verse 1, if there be any therefore, I’m sorry, verse 1, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, much like Jesus Christ just taught to love one another.
Verse 3, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, there’s where pride would get in, don’t let pride get in, don’t let vain glory get in, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Well, that’s a stance of humility, right, to consider others more important than you, instead of, oh, look at me, I’m the important one. It goes on, verse 4, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. See, it’s Jesus Christ we looked at in Matthew 11, he says, learn of me. Here, Paul is writing in Philippians, let this mind be in you, which was in Christ, to learn of him.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So, that’s how we can think, not that we have to go to the cross. Jesus Christ died once and for all, that’s all done, but we can develop that humble mindset.
Applying the Teaching in Daily Life
I was thinking about what is it to be humble? Well, to be humble, you need to listen to receive and respond to others with genuine openness and sincere expectation that there’s something that you can learn. When we are in a conversation, when we are interacting with one another, pay close attention, especially when you’re talking with other believers. God could very well be working in that conversation, and things can be said to you that are exactly what you need to hear, but not if you’re trying to already think of your answer before this person’s even finished talking.
We can’t be closed, we’ve got to be receptive to God working. You maintain a strong conviction of God’s direction in your life, recognizing His loving kindness, His goodwill, He promises to supply all of our needs. Sometimes that supply may come from others, and there’s many records of that in the Word.
There’s records in the Old Testament where this wonderful general of the Syrian army, Naaman, was told that he could go to the Prophet in Israel and get healed, and he expected some big show, and the Prophet of Israel just said, oh, go wash in the river, far, far. And he got upset, this great general who had a lot of pride in himself, and yet a little maid of Israel said to him, why not just go dip in the river? Maybe you’re going to come clean. And he had the humility, the meekness to receive from her.
Sometimes someone can approach us with a suggestion, with a comment, and it’s God working, and so we want to be humble enough to receive that. There’s records in the Word where it shows even the Apostle Paul wasn’t humble enough when he was determined to go to Jerusalem. It says in every city, they said, don’t go, Paul.
Agabus came from Jerusalem. This is in Acts chapter 20, and said, Paul, Acts 20 and 21, let me see your girdle, your belt. And he takes Paul’s belt and ties up his hands and said, this is what they’re going to do to you when you go to Jerusalem.
In other words, don’t go. But in this instance, Paul decided not to be humble. He decided, you know, don’t try and weep and break my heart.
I’m ready to go and die in Jerusalem if that’s what needs to happen. But God didn’t want him to die. These people didn’t want him to die.
A Life Shaped by God’s Word
And thankfully, God’s mercy was able to save his life, and yet he was confined for many years to prison because he didn’t listen to these loving disciples that he walked with. We are to embrace one another with great love and respect, no matter what title somebody has or doesn’t have, and we’re just to walk humbly with one another. Go to 1 Peter, all the way near the back of your Bible, 1 Peter chapter 5. This great man, Peter, who accompanied Jesus Christ through so many situations and was a great leader of the church once Jesus Christ ascended to the right hand of God, in the days before he was going to die, he was told by God that his time was going to come to an end.
He got to write 1 and 2 Peter, and in 1 Peter chapter 5, pick it up in verse 5. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another. So it’s not just to the elder.
We’re to submit ourselves to one another. All of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with what? It says clothed with humility. That’s to be our outer garment, that humility, that loneliness of mind, that stance where we believe that others around us are even better than us.
As much as we want to do and walk for God, we’re to be clothed with humility. And it goes on, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble therefore yourselves unto the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.
Well, we just were told clothed with humility, and here it says humble, humble. We’re to be those men and women that have great humility. That’s how we’re to love each other.
That’s how we’re to put on the Christ, and that’s where we’ll see God take care of us and provide for us. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy. I thank you for these great examples in the word that we can learn from.
How to walk with you, how to submit to one another as you work within us. Certainly you are there to direct our steps and to give us the information that we need, whether it’s you working within the Spirit of God you’ve given us, or perhaps you working in the heart and life of someone else and the Spirit of God in them that can provide us with the needed direction that we have, that we need. Thanks God for just continuing to open your word to us in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Key Takeaways
- But tonight I want to look at the greatest man of all time, Jesus Christ, and see what we can learn about humility from him.
- Previously we looked at some of what the word says about humility, and we saw some examples from David, the great man of God, David, and how humble he was.
- It’s fun to look at these places to see the humility of Jesus Christ.
- See, it’s Jesus Christ we looked at in Matthew 11, he says, learn of me.
- Jesus Christ died once and for all, that’s all done, but we can develop that humble mindset.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main message of “How Important is Humility? Part 2”?
Rev. Jon Ryan examines “How Important is Humility? Part 2” through Matthew 11, John 5, Mark 10, Matthew 23, showing how christ, says, humble shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Which scriptures are central to this teaching?
The teaching draws especially from Matthew 11, John 5, Mark 10, Matthew 23, John 13.
How can believers apply this teaching?
Jesus Christ died once and for all, that’s all done, but we can develop that humble mindset.
Scripture References
Matthew 11; John 5; Mark 10; Matthew 23; John 13; Philippians 2
This text was prepared from the teaching audio or source document. Please verify scripture references against your own Bible.
