In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of humility in the life of a Christian. He emphasizes that Jesus demonstrated humility by washing the disciples' feet, a task typically done by servants. Jesus identified himself with humanity and considered all human beings equal, regardless of their race, education, or social status. The speaker encourages listeners to allow the Holy Spirit to transform their thinking to be like Christ, so that they no longer consider themselves superior to others.

We've been looking at the way God wants man to live, as demonstrated in the life of Jesus Christ. And that is the example we need to follow. We want to consider a little more about His humility. We see Jesus identifying Himself totally with man. He was not ashamed to be a man. The Bible says He's not ashamed to call us His brothers. Sometimes we feel superior to some other human being. We feel we are more educated or we belong to a higher class of society. All this is because of the perverted pride that has infected us ever since Adam sinned. Jesus came to demonstrate that essentially all human beings were equal, irrespective of race, family, education, intelligence, culture, position in life or whatever. He came and became one with the least and the lowest in the social level in His day in Israel. He came below everybody because that's the only way He could be the servant of everybody. You cannot be the servant of another if you are not willing to go underneath Him. If you want to lift somebody up, you've got to go underneath Him. And that's how Jesus came. Now, the Holy Spirit has come to make our mind like Christ's. In other words, to make our way of thinking exactly like Christ's. This is not a theory. This is not something we just talk about over a radio program or in a church. It's supposed to become a reality in our life, that in our mind we do not any longer consider ourselves superior to any other human being, whatever his religion or race or anything may be. Only then can we say that the humility of Christ has begun to work in our thoughts. You know, if you were to think about what are the... Try and answer this question. What are the thoughts you think about yourself when you're all by yourself? Can you answer that question? What do you think about yourself? I mean, do you think of yourself as a good-looking person perhaps or very clever or fortunate to be born in a rich family or things like that? There you can see how much of your thoughts are like Christ's and how much of your thoughts are like the devil's. If you're comparing yourself with others and considering yourself superior, that's exactly the type of thoughts that went through the mind of Lucifer who became the devil. The Bible says that we must regard others as more important than ourselves. Philippians 2, verse 3. And he goes on to speak in that passage about Jesus Christ being our example. Paul once said in Ephesians 3, verse 8, he said, I am the very least of all the saints. Paul had been so gripped by the humility of Christ that as he thought about himself, he saw himself as the absolute lowest among all the believers. Now, there's no contradiction between that and Paul telling the Corinthians that they were carnal. Paul didn't consider himself carnal. See, the Bible does not tell us, consider other people better than yourself. That would be impossible. Who was the humblest man that walked on the earth? You know the answer? That was Jesus Christ. He was the humblest person that walked on the earth. Now tell me the answer to this question. Did Jesus consider other people as better than himself? How could he do that? He was so pure. He was so holy. He knew Judas Iscariot was a devil. He didn't consider other people better than himself. Humility does not mean considering other people better than ourselves, because then we have to believe a lie. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians and saying, you're carnal, you're babies, did he consider the Corinthians better than himself? No. And some people have got this false humility where they struggle and try to consider other people better than themselves. It's a futile effort. The Bible doesn't ask you to do it. What does it say in Philippians 2, 3? Consider others as more important than yourself. That's different. Jesus considered others always as more important. And that's why we see in picking a bucket of water and washing the disciples' feet at the Last Supper, you know, that was a job done by servants in those days. He went to a home, and the master of the home, if he was a rich man, he had slaves. Slaves means people who were bought, who did not get any wages. They were lower than servants. And the slave's duty was when guests came to the house to take a basin of water and wash the dust from their feet, remove their sandals and wash the dust from their feet. And so, wherever a supper was arranged, there would always be a basin of water near the door. And so, when the disciples and Jesus came to this Last Supper, there was no host there because they only had an empty room. But the basin of water was kept there. Now the question was, who was going to do the job of washing the people's feet? And each disciple must have thought, well, I'm not going to do that. Peter may have thought, well, I'm just going to be the leader after Jesus goes away. How can I do such a thing? And Matthew may have thought, well, I'm an educated accountant. I can't go washing the feet of these disciples. And like that, each of those disciples may have thought how they were superior to the others in some way, and therefore they couldn't possibly do a slave's job. It's better it's not done. And then Jesus took up that basin of water and began to wash their feet. Why? Because He said, well, you're all more important than Me. They were not more spiritual than Him, and He didn't think so, but He treated them as more important. He really considered Himself genuinely. It was not an act put on just to show that He was humble. You know, there can be people who act humble, who do things just to show that they are servants and they are humble. That's all hypocrisy. God hates it. Jesus was genuine. He really took that place of being nothing before His heavenly Father. And this is what humility really is, to take the place of being absolutely nothing before God. Lord, I am nothing. Everything that I am, You have made me. You know, if I'm intelligent, who made you intelligent? God made you. There are so many children born into this world who are retarded. You could have been born like that. You could have been born with a defective brain or a defective body, and you could have been born and got polio, or you could have been born with some congenital disease, like many children are born into this world. And what would you be then? It really is proper for us to be thoroughly humble when we think of our condition. Lord, what do I have which I have not received? Only a foolish man is proud. Now, Jesus took that place of a servant, but we also read He went still further. What is lower than a slave? We'd say nothing, that's the lowest place. No, a criminal, a murderer. He would be considered even lower than a slave. And we read that Jesus was crucified just like a criminal. You know, this crucifixion, killing people on the cross, was something that the Romans reserved for the worst criminals in Palestine. Ordinary criminals were not crucified, but the worst, the absolutely incorrigible worst criminals, they'd kill them. Kill them with this terrible process of crucifixion where they'd suffer and die over a period of many hours. And Jesus humbled Himself to die on a cross as a criminal. The Bible says in Isaiah that He was numbered with the transgressors. He was counted among the criminals. But because that was His Father's will, He accepted it. He obeyed. It's marvelous to see the humility of Jesus, right from the time He was a little child. You know, the Bible says in Luke's Gospel, chapter 2, the last verse of Luke's Gospel, chapter 2, that Jesus, Luke 2, 51, He came to Nazareth and He continued in subjection to Joseph and Mary. And that went on for 30 years. Now, were Joseph and Mary perfect? Far from it. They were no better than any couple today. Think of an average Christian home today where husband and wife fight with each other, once in a while at least. Well, Joseph and Mary were like that. They were not perfect people who never sinned. There's nobody like that. They were sinners. They were imperfect. They did not know everything. And in their home lived Jesus, who was sinless, who was perfect, and who never did anything wrong. So, who should submit to whom? One would think Joseph and Mary should submit to Jesus, right? The one who is imperfect, that's Joseph and Mary, should submit to the one who is perfect, that's Jesus. But it wasn't like that. Jesus submitted to an imperfect foster father and mother. You know, it's not easy for us to submit to those who are inferior to us. Can you submit to somebody who is inferior to you? But if you are genuinely humble, you'll have no problem. You'll submit to anybody because you realize you're nothing. And humility is the secret. We have no problem with anybody when we're humble. Jesus was quite happy to be a carpenter. When he went out into the ministry, he never took any title. He never called himself the Reverend Jesus or any such thing. He never wanted any position or title or anything that would exalt him above the common people whom he came to serve. He became like his brothers in all things. When they wanted to make him a king, he ran away. He never did anything to get honor from men. If he healed a sick person, he'd tell that sick person, don't tell anyone. Do you see his humility? He wanted all the glory to be given to the Father. He never wanted to draw anybody to himself. His healings were not publicity stunts to draw attention to himself. What a beautiful picture we have of what man is supposed to be. Think what would happen if the world became full of people like this. But you can make a beginning in your life now.