Sermons on Philippians 2:7
The various sermons below converge on Philippians 2:7 as a climactic statement of kenosis: the incarnation is portrayed as voluntary self‑emptying that both models humility and grounds Christian life, mission, worship, and leadership. Across the samples preachers agree that Jesus “takes the form of a servant” and that this move is not an ontological subtraction of deity but the addition of true humanity or a voluntary limitation in the exercise of divine attributes (exegetical attention to Greek terms like morphe and kenoo recurs). From that common core they draw similar pastoral moves—imitation, servant leadership, sacrificial vocation, and missional wooing—yet with different emphases: some stress soteriology and doxology (kenosis as the means to reconciliation and God’s glory), others stress concrete ethics and rhythms of discipleship, and one treats the incarnation as a spectacle that invites transformed participation rather than mere admiration.
The sermons split along several fault lines that will shape how you preach: a technical‑exegetical lane insists on preserving Christ’s unchangeable deity and reads kenosis as functional self‑limitation, whereas a pastoral/ethical lane treats kenosis primarily as an everyday pattern for service, leadership, and vocational rhythms; a missional reading foregrounds the incarnation as a relational “wooing” that initiates mission, while a doxological reading subordinates practice to the end of magnifying God’s glory. There are also tonal differences—corrective, cautionary sermons that warn against extreme kenotic theories versus vivid, practical sermons offering analogies and routines—and each choice pushes the message toward distinct applications (church order and worship correction; urgent personal humility and foot‑washing praxis; mobilizing relational mission) or toward hybridizing those aims, so you must decide whether your sermon will prioritize clarifying Christ’s ontology and the cross’s doxological purpose, galvanize listeners into concrete acts of humble service and leadership, lean into missional attraction and transformation, or hold in tension the theological safeguard that Jesus did not cease to be divine while calling the congregation into radical imitation —
Philippians 2:7 Interpretation:
Transformative Mission: Embracing the Incarnation of Christ(Westfield Evangelical Free Church) reads Philippians 2:7 as central to a two-way, mirror-like movement: Jesus' kenosis (making himself nothing by taking the nature of a servant and being made in human likeness) is not merely an historical oddity but the inauguration of a mission that both demonstrates God’s humility and invites an internal transformation in believers — the sermon frames the incarnation as a spectacle that lures us (using the Power Team/phone-book analogy) but insists that the purpose is deeper: to model how divine authority is voluntarily restrained (“squeezed into human likeness”) so that humans might be transformed into God-likeness in a reversed, participatory way and then participate in the mission (the “wooing” language and ambassador/Great Commission link make this distinctive).
Living for the Glory of God Alone(CSFBC) takes Philippians 2:7 as a theological hinge and offers a technical, exegetical reading: Paul’s language about Christ “taking the form of a servant” is unpacked with the Greek word morphe (internal form/consistency), and the preacher insists the kenosis is not subtraction of divinity but addition of true humanity (quoting Augustine’s phrasing later), so Jesus remains fully God while assuming true human likeness and servant status; the sermon then interprets that humility and incarnation as the necessary means by which the cross accomplishes reconciliation for the ultimate end of God’s glory (so Philippians 2:7 is read not just ethically but soteriologically and doxologically).
Embracing Humility: The Call to Serve Like Christ(The Flame Church) interprets Philippians 2:7 as a prescriptive pattern for Christian service: the preacher highlights the verb “emptied himself” (claiming the Greek kenoo/“Kanoa”) to mean Jesus voluntarily laid down divine prerogatives and “took the form of a servant” so believers must imitate that self‑emptying in concrete acts of humble service (foot‑washing imagery and practical examples of “inconvenient pauses” are used to make the kenosis an everyday ethic rather than a merely doctrinal claim).
"Sermon title: Understanding Jesus: Divine Nature and Human Limitations"(David Guzik) interprets Philippians 2:7 through the lens of kenosis (the Greek idea of "emptying") but insists on a technical nuance: Paul’s words describe Jesus’ voluntary limitation of the exercise of his divine attributes rather than a subtraction of deity, and Guzik highlights the Greek background by naming the kenotic idea (he cites the Greek term as the basis for translations like “made himself of no reputation” / “emptied himself”), arguing that incarnation = addition of humanity, not subtraction of divinity; he develops this with a careful corrective: Jesus retained omniscience, omnipotence, etc., but at times chose not to exercise them (illustrated by Matthew 24:36 and John 16:30), so Philippians 2:7 describes a self-limitation in function not an ontological loss.
"Sermon title: Finding Purpose: Centering Life on Jesus"(GraceAZ) reads Philippians 2:7 as the ethical and vocational heart of Christian purpose: the clause “made himself nothing / emptying himself” becomes the template for the believer’s posture—humble service, sacrificial pouring-out and centrality of Christ as the hub of life; the preacher treats the verse less as abstract Christology and more as a practical lever that shapes seasons of building, filling and pouring out in the Christian life, so that Christ’s self-emptying is translated into a life pattern of humility, missional focus, and “live full, die empty” discipleship.
"Sermon title: Embracing Humility: The True Path of Leadership"(SermonIndex.net) interprets Philippians 2:7 primarily in pastoral and ethical terms: he emphasizes that Jesus’ taking “the form of a servant” is both an identity and an example to be imitated, arguing that Jesus remains Lord even as servant and that the passage is a prescriptive pattern for Christian leaders—humility is not optional but the prerequisite for Christ-like teaching and authority—so Philippians 2:7 functions as both descriptive of Christ and normative for Christian conduct and ministry practice.
Philippians 2:7 Theological Themes:
Transformative Mission: Embracing the Incarnation of Christ(Westfield Evangelical Free Church) advances the distinctive theological theme that the incarnation is simultaneously spectacle and summons: Christmas is not merely an invitation to behold an “unimaginable feat” but an invitation to be transformed and to participate in God’s mission — the sermon’s fresh angle is to treat the manger as the model of God’s method (descent to invite ascent in the hearts of others) and to emphasize that the incarnation grounds a mission of relational wooing rather than coercive authority.
Living for the Glory of God Alone(CSFBC) develops a focused doxological theme: the incarnation and kenotic humiliation (Philippians 2:6–8, including v.7) are ultimately ordered to the glory of God (Soli Deo Gloria), so the cross and the exaltation that follows are not primarily about human honor or human achievement but about restoring creation to its end — the sermon presses the argument that repentance, discipleship, and even church practices must be judged by whether they magnify God’s worth.
Embracing Humility: The Call to Serve Like Christ(The Flame Church) frames servanthood as the constitutive Christian vocation: the kenosis becomes the normative gospel mindset that reorients ministry, leadership, and ordinary interactions; the sermon’s novelty is practicalizing humility as a habit (“prefer others,” “serve in inconvenient pauses”) and linking servant leadership (including mundane tasks) directly to gospel authenticity rather than to status or recognition.
"Sermon title: Understanding Jesus: Divine Nature and Human Limitations"(David Guzik) emphasizes the distinct theological theme of “limited exercise vs. loss of attributes” — a kenotic model that preserves unchangeable deity while affirming voluntary self-limitation in the incarnation; Guzik warns against extreme kenotic theories that would deny Christ’s deity and stresses the pastoral and doctrinal danger of teaching that Jesus ceased to be God.
"Sermon title: Finding Purpose: Centering Life on Jesus"(GraceAZ) develops the theological theme that Christ’s humility (Philippians 2:7) is the ontological hub for Christian vocation: the pastor frames kenosis as the grounding for Christian purpose, arguing that the incarnation’s self-emptying establishes a theological mandate for discipleship rhythms (build → fill → pour out) and for evaluating what “matters most” in the life of the church and the individual.
"Sermon title: Embracing Humility: The True Path of Leadership"(SermonIndex.net) highlights the distinctive theme that Christ’s servant-form is the master-pattern for leadership and learning: humility is not merely ethical but epistemic (you must acknowledge Christ as Lord to be properly taught by him), and genuine spiritual power and blessing flow to those who embody the servant-pattern rather than to the proud.
Philippians 2:7 Historical and Contextual Insights:
Transformative Mission: Embracing the Incarnation of Christ(Westfield Evangelical Free Church) supplies cultural context for the nativity and incarnation by pointing out that first‑century people would not normally place a newborn in a feeding trough (the manger image is intentionally humiliating and culturally unusual), and the preacher leans on Luke’s medical‑style detail to argue the historicity and oddity of the scene — this context is used to underline how radical the incarnation was in real first‑century social terms and to bolster the sermon's claim that the manger already signals the mission and humility that will characterize Jesus’ life.
Living for the Glory of God Alone(CSFBC) gives sharper historical/cultural grounding for Philippians 2:7–8 by explaining Roman crucifixion practice (crucifixion was a degrading, slave/criminal punishment from which Roman citizens were normally exempt) and by explicating morphe (Greek “form”) to show Paul’s insistence that Jesus shares God’s internal identity even while assuming servant status; these details are marshaled to make the shock of the incarnate Lord’s descent and crucifixion intelligible to Paul’s original readers and to highlight the scandalous humility of the cross.
Embracing Humility: The Call to Serve Like Christ(The Flame Church) supplies first‑century cultural context for the servant imagery by explaining the foot‑washing custom: washing feet was the task of the lowest household servant, so Jesus’ action (and Paul’s “taking the form of a servant”) signified a deliberate inversion of honor and status; the sermon uses that cultural detail to make the ethical imperative (imitate Christ’s lowliness) concrete and socially intelligible.
"Sermon title: Understanding Jesus: Divine Nature and Human Limitations"(David Guzik) brings in historical-theological context by naming the Greek kenosis concept and cautioning about historical misapplications (the kenotic controversy) that have led some to claim Jesus divested attributes of deity; he situates Philippians 2:7 within first-century Christological discussion and reads the passage against errors that would make incarnation subtraction rather than addition, using Gospel examples to show how the Son voluntarily limited exercise of attributes during earthly ministry.
"Sermon title: Finding Purpose: Centering Life on Jesus"(GraceAZ) supplies historical and cultural context for Philippians by outlining the situation of the Philippian church—Paul writing from imprisonment to a Roman colony where Caesar was proclaimed lord and where there was no Jewish synagogue—so Philippians 2:7’s language of Christ’s lordship and humble incarnation is read against a background of imperial lordship and the radical countercultural claim that Jesus, not Caesar, is the true Lord.
"Sermon title: Embracing Humility: The True Path of Leadership"(SermonIndex.net) offers cultural-historical texture by noting first-century Jewish sensibilities about titles (the significance of the double title “Teacher and Lord”) and by locating Jesus’ servant-identity in the broader scriptural “servant” tradition (Isaiah and Acts references), thus treating Philippians 2:7 as part of a well-attested biblical motif in the cultural world that expected clear distinctions between lordship and servanthood.
Philippians 2:7 Cross-References in the Bible:
Transformative Mission: Embracing the Incarnation of Christ(Westfield Evangelical Free Church) links Philippians 2:7 to multiple New Testament texts: John 1:14 (“the Word became flesh”) is used to validate and deepen the incarnation claim; Luke 2 (the nativity narrative) supplies the concrete birth details that underscore the humble setting; Matthew 28 (the Great Commission) is read as the missionary telos mirrored in the manger (incarnation → mission); 2 Corinthians 3 (veil removed; beholding transforms) is appealed to for the idea that beholding Christ effects inner transformation; Philippians 2 more broadly is the lens through which the preacher reads those connections, arguing the incarnation’s humility both models and empowers mission and transformation.
Living for the Glory of God Alone(CSFBC) draws on Colossians 1:16 (all things were created through and for Christ) to argue that the incarnation and atonement restore creation’s proper orientation to its Creator, and on Isaiah passages (notably Isaiah 42/45 themes about Yahweh’s name and universal homage) to interpret Paul’s language about the “name above every name” and “every knee” — these cross‑references are used to show that Paul’s kenosis language fits into a broader biblical story in which God’s self‑humiliation is the means to re‑establish God’s rightful glory.
Embracing Humility: The Call to Serve Like Christ(The Flame Church) marshals several biblical narratives and imperatives alongside Philippians 2:7: Matthew 20:28 and John 13 (the Son of Man comes to serve and the foot‑washing episode) are the primary models for servanthood; 1 Peter 4:10 and 1 Peter 5:2 provide pastoral and gifting‑based ethics for serving one another; Mark 5 (Jairus and the hemorrhaging woman), the Good Samaritan parable (Luke 10), Ephesians 5:15–16 (make the best use of time), Proverbs 16:9 and Psalm 102 are cited to shape the practical outworking of kenosis as compassion, readiness for “inconvenient pauses,” and wise use of opportunities to serve.
"Sermon title: Understanding Jesus: Divine Nature and Human Limitations"(David Guzik) groups several New Testament cross-references to clarify Philippians 2:7: he appeals to Matthew 24:36 (Jesus’ statement that the day/hour of the Son’s return is known only to the Father) and John 16:30 (the disciples’ declaration “now we know you know all things”) to illustrate that Jesus both retained divine knowledge and sometimes refrained from exercising it; he cites John 14:12–14 and Acts 2 implicitly when discussing the continuation and expansion of Jesus’ work through the Spirit (greater works = broader reach), and he uses 1 Timothy 2:5 to argue that Jesus retains glorified humanity (the “man Christ Jesus”) after the ascension, supporting his claim that Jesus’ self-limitation was voluntary and temporally bound to the incarnation.
"Sermon title: Finding Purpose: Centering Life on Jesus"(GraceAZ) groups Pauline and Johannine references around Philippians 2:7 to show how Paul’s hymn and Jesus’ commands shape congregational life: the preacher anchors the passage to Philippians 2:5–11 as the “hub” and ties it to Philippians 3:13–14 (Paul’s own vocational pressing-on) to make kenosis the engine of purpose, and he brings in John 13:34 (Jesus’ command to love one another) and Acts 16 (Paul’s founding of the Philippian church) to argue that Christ’s humility produces communal love and mission in a concrete church-setting.
"Sermon title: Embracing Humility: The True Path of Leadership"(SermonIndex.net) collects related scriptural material to show the pattern of servant-leadership: he connects John 13:13–17 (Jesus washes feet and gives the example), Matthew 7:28–29 (crowds astonished by Jesus’ authority), Philippians 2:7 (taking the form of a servant), and John 14:12 (the works of believers) to argue that Christ’s servant-example is both the model for Christian leaders and the paradigm by which power and authority in ministry are rightly exercised.
Philippians 2:7 Christian References outside the Bible:
Transformative Mission: Embracing the Incarnation of Christ(Westfield Evangelical Free Church) explicitly cites J. I. Packer, quoting his phrase that the incarnation is an “unfathomable mystery,” and uses that tribute to support the sermon’s posture that Christmas is an invitation to behold something the mind cannot fully contain; the Packer citation functions as an authoritative, theological reinforcement of the sermon’s claim that the incarnation is both theologically dense and pastorally inviting.
Living for the Glory of God Alone(CSFBC) explicitly quotes Augustine to frame the kenosis: Augustine’s line is cited (“Christ emptied himself not by losing what he was, but by taking to him what he was not”), and the preacher uses Augustine’s distinction to press the point that the incarnation was not a loss of divinity but the addition of true humanity, thereby anchoring the sermon’s exegesis to classical theological reflection on kenosis.
Philippians 2:7 Illustrations from Secular Sources:
Transformative Mission: Embracing the Incarnation of Christ(Westfield Evangelical Free Church) employs several secular/pop‑culture and commonplace analogies to illustrate how humans are attracted to spectacles and how the incarnation both fits and subverts that dynamic: the preacher recounts the Power Team (a secular stunt troupe) who performed astonishing feats—bending a two‑inch pipe, smashing a brick with a forehead, running through fire—and notably ripping a thousand‑page phone book in half; that phone‑book ripping is described in detail (thousands of pages, yellow pages), used as the archetypal example of a crowd‑drawing spectacle; he pairs that with a personal “wooing” anecdote (an elaborate high‑school date: museum, dainty tea, carousel, lake photo) to analogize how people are drawn by displays and wooing; he then maps social‑media virality to the same pattern (people want to “check this out”), arguing that while the incarnation is similarly “invitational” spectacle, its aim is not mere gawking but transformative participation and mission — these secular images are described at length to show the difference between being entertained by a wonder and being invited into a salvific, missional change.
"Sermon title: Understanding Jesus: Divine Nature and Human Limitations"(David Guzik) uses a vivid secular illustration — a world-class Olympic sprinter placed in a three-legged race at a family picnic — to explain kenosis: the athlete retains all ability (ontology) but voluntarily accepts a practical handicap (exercise) for the event’s purpose; Guzik uses this concrete image to make the abstract theological point that Jesus retained divine attributes but chose not to exercise them fully in certain earthly contexts.
"Sermon title: Finding Purpose: Centering Life on Jesus"(GraceAZ) employs everyday, non-technical analogies to translate Philippians 2:7 into life-practice: he uses a bicycle-wheel hub and spokes to picture Christ as the central hub around which life’s activities must connect, and he applies a secular lifecycle/build-fill-pour-out schema (building seasons, filling seasons, pouring-out seasons) as a practical metaphor for how the self-emptying of Christ orders vocational and relational rhythms in ordinary life; he also draws on contemporary baptism testimonies (real-life secular events) as narrative illustrations of how the kenotic pattern changes people’s trajectories.
"Sermon title: Embracing Humility: The True Path of Leadership"(SermonIndex.net) peppers his exposition with secular, everyday images to illuminate Philippians 2:7: he likens Christ’s teaching to a prize-winning teacher and parable-telling to compelling storytelling, compares spiritual power to a phone battery (silent but essential) and a vehicle engine (audible power), and uses a commonplace anecdote — forgetting one’s wallet and thereby being locked out of one’s house — to dramatize how forgetting humility can close doors; he also mentions contemporary “masterclass” analogies (Gordon Ramsay, James Patterson) to argue that Jesus is the ultimate master-teacher whose pattern must be imitated.