In Matthew 20:16, within the context of the parable of the workers, Jesus said, “So the last shall be first and the first shall be last.” In Matthew 19:30, after sharing that everyone that leaves anything or anyone for His sake will be rewarded a hundredfold, Jesus said “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” In very similar terms, when telling the disciples to “take up the cross”, in Matthew 16:25 Jesus said “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Philippians 2:5 commands us to have the same mind that was found in Christ Jesus and then tells us that He chose not to use His equality with God, His divinity as something to be used for His own advantage. Rather than using His divinity to prove Himself, protect Himself, defend Himself or even provide for Himself, He chose to empty Himself. He didn’t remove His divinity, He took on our humanity, He didn’t stop being God, as God He made the decision to become a man. As John wrote in John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . .” Everything that Jesus did was by His will, nothing was done to Him, nothing was cast upon Him, He chose to become a man, listen to the voice of the Father, obey the will of the Father; humility was not something He inherited, it was His decision, he chose that humility would be the foundation of His character. That is what Paul was calling the Philippians to and what he is calling each of us to, that we would chose humility. In tonight’s text, we see how far Jesus’ humility went, that not only did He become a man, not only did He chose to become a lowly bondservant, the lowest rung of societies ladder at the time, but He chose death so that we could have life. The first literally became last because that was the only way that the last could become first. I pray that we will give thanks for what Jesus has done but that we will then realize that our greatest thanks is to “go and do likewise”, to “let this mind be in” us which was also in Christ Jesus and then to see how the Father responds not just to Jesus but those who desire to be like Jesus.