Audio Transcript:

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome to another edition of our Mosaic Boston Brookline online worship services. So glad that you are with us tuning in. Say hello in the comments section below if you're on Facebook live. Also, just a word to our regular attenders, if we have your email address and you are on our newsletter, you have received this week a survey, and we would love if you could give us the feedback, fill it out. It would help us tremendously in gathering all the information we need to gather so that we open a Mosaic and open well.

With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word? Heavenly Father, we love you. We thank you, Lord, that you are Father, and that you have many children, and that when you call us to be one of your children, you call us into a family. And Lord, we know in any family conflict arises. And I pray, Lord, that you today show us that by the gospel of Jesus Christ through grace you humble us. The gospel is the only force in the universe capable of humbling us, of getting us to the point where we crucify flesh and deny ourselves and follow you and serve others.

Lord, I pray that you bless us today in your word. Take these words, Lord, and apply them not just to our minds, but to our hearts. And empower our wills to live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.

We are in a sermon series through the book of Philippians. This is sermon number three. Pastor Ivy kicked off the series week one. Last week, we looked at Philippians chapter 1:12-30. Today, we are in Philippians 2:1-11. Title of the sermon today is Humility, the Key to Harmony. Humility, the Key to Harmony.

One of the things that quarantine has done is it has surfaced any relational conflict we have with our roommates or our family members. And we're thankful for them because now we can work through those issues by the gospel of Jesus Christ, and humility is truly a key to harmony.

One of my mentors is Bill Wellons, and he defines humility like this: "Humility is nothing to prove and no one to impress." Nothing to prove and no one to impress. I really, really like that. Scripture teaches that pride is the root of all sin, and sin is what keeps us from living the lives that God has intended us to live. Pride gets in the way of enjoying God. Pride gets in the way of enjoying people and enjoying life.

Sometimes pride surfaces in our lives where we think too much of ourselves. Sometimes pride surfaces as insecurity where we think too little of ourselves. But in either case, we're thinking of ourselves. Too much thinking of yourself, that's what pride is. C.S. Lewis said, "Pride isn't thinking too much of yourself, it's thinking of yourself too much." Pride isn't thinking too much of yourself, it's thinking of yourself too much.

Peter Kreeft, one of my favorite philosophers says, "Pride has ingrown eyeballs. Humility stares outward in self-forgetful ecstasy." What a place that is, self-forgetfulness. And that's where the gospel intend to take us.

One of the things I will mention about preaching through Philippians, this is my second, maybe third time preaching through Philippians chapter 2:1-11. And I was reading through my notes from 2015, and I was struck by the thought of, "Oh, wow. The guy in 2015, Jan Vezikov in 2015 five years ago had no idea how much he was struggling with pride." I'm doing so much better in 2020. And as soon as you get there, you realize, well, that is so proud. And this is the thing that you see with pride. You never attain humility. It's not about getting to the destination of humility, it's all about the journey. Are you growing in humility? Are you growing in repentance of pride?

We're about to encounter one of the most theologically, Christology dense scriptures and passages in scripture, but this scripture wasn't written for theologians alone. This scripture was written to common people, to regular people, regular Christians dealing with regular problems, to business people, to working people, soldiers, wives, husbands, parents, children. It's not just about Christology, it's about dealing and getting along with one another.

So would you look at the text with me? Today we are in Philippians 2:1-11. Philippians 2:1-11. "So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my job by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interest of others.

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." This is the reading of God's and infallible authoritative word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts.

The keys to harmonious relationship, I already mentioned, is humility. And we got to ask ourselves at least five questions from this text to diagnose whether we are growing in humility. First of all, am I motivated by God's great love? Second, am I seeking unity or my own way? Third, am I growing in selfishness or humility? Am I putting the interests of others above my own? And number five, am I thinking with the mind of Christ?

So first of all, am I motivated by God's great love? I love how St. Paul starts with this. He could've just rebuked them. He could've just said, "Why is there disunity in this family, this family of God in this local church in Philippi?" He doesn't. He doesn't start with a harsh rebuke. He starts with God's tender love. Why? Because God's love is the only force powerful enough to get us to a point where we humble ourselves, where we seek to crucify our pride, and ourself, and our ego.

Here he says, "So if there is, so therefore ..." The word so means therefore. Wherever you see a therefore in scripture, you got to ask what it's there for. Well, it goes back to 1:27, Philippians 1:27, which is maybe the thesis of the whole book. He says, "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear that you are standing firm in the gospel, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel." Are you striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, you brothers and sisters? Are you united in pursuit of the mission of god, the expansion of his kingdom of love?

It goes back to we need to stand firm in unity. And the context is that seeds of disunity have been sewn in the body in Philippi. So St. Paul starts with Christ and the gospel and the word if. So if there is. If isn't a word of doubt or certainty. It's a word that means since. And he gives us a fourfold rhetorical question. There's four things. He says, "If since you have this in the gospel." Then he goes to what he wants them to do in light of that.

Why does he start with the gospel? He starts with the gospel to get us into a point of indebtedness. There are two ways of living through life, entitlement or indebtedness. Pride leads to entitlement where you think that you deserve. And the gospel gets you to a place of indebtedness where you realize that the only thing you do truly deserve is hell. It's separation from God for all of eternity. If you hear this for the first time, by the way, it sounds so harsh. It sounds so abrupt. It's so unpalatable. But, the scripture always does this to awaken us, to awaken us from our pride, to awaken us from our spiritual stupor.

He says, "Because so if there," that's verse one, "If there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy ..." And I'll just break this down. He starts with encouragement and Christ. It's a Greek word paracleses. Jesus uses this word to actually describe the Holy Spirit who is the Paraclete. He is the helper. He is the comforter. He is the encourager, the one called alongside to help, as scripture says in John 14.

St. Paul starts here in terms of encouragement because relational conflict is always a source of discouragement. And at such times when you're discouraged by the people closest to you, you have a choice. You have a choice to either remain in that discouragement or turn to Christ who is the encourager, who by the Holy Spirit is our sufficiency. And he has promised to never leave us or forsake us no matter what. There is encouragement in Christ.

Second is participation in the spirit, participation or fellowship. When a person turns from sin to Christ, repents by grace through faith, trusts in the Lord, you are at that moment indwelt with the Holy Spirit. You're baptized into the body of Christ. And the Holy Spirit draws us into fellowship with Christ and with one another. This is what it means to have fellowship in the spirit. You have fellowship with God. And you have fellowship with those who have the Holy Spirit, and that's our fellow Christians, our brothers and sisters. You can't have love for God without love for Christians, as first John says.

If there's any affection and sympathy, the affection and sympathy here, St. Paul gets to the emotional element of God's love. He doesn't allow us to just stay at the level of logic where many of us naturally want to stay. He descends further into our heart, into our affection and he says, if you have in your heart this living experience of God, how can you but not share those affections, extend those affections to others?

It's the same word that's used in Matthew 9:36 where it says that Jesus, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion. He had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. It's the Greek word splagchnizomai. It talks about the internal organs. Jesus internally, he felt love. He felt empathy and compassion.

Every relation with conflict, every relation with problem is an opportunity to learn more of what Christ felt. Do you feel offended by the people around you? Well, no one was treated as offensively as Jesus Christ. Have you ever abandoned by your friends? Well, Jesus invested three years into his 12 disciplines, was abandoned by 11 of them. Have you ever felt betrayed? Jesus was betrayed by Judas, and still he loved. Still he extended his love so much so that on the cross he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." So if we have this affection, this sympathy, this encourage, if we have all of this in Christ, participation in the spirit, how are we not to be motivated to love others when we're motivated by God's great love?

Second, am I seeking unity or my own way? Philippians 2:2, he says, "Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind." This, by the way, this is such incredible lesson in leadership. It's an incredible lesson in marriage. It's incredible lesson in ... This right here is such ...

St. Paul does not tell them what to do. That's not where he starts. He first starts with the gospel, if you love God, if you have experienced God love. Then, he says ... Then he goes to himself. Do you love me? If you love me, complete my ... I'm going to start doing this all the time with my daughters. I think I'm going to start doing this. "Oh, Sophia, complete my joy by making me an omelet. Oh, Elizabeth, complete my joy by washing the dishes. Catarina, complete my joy by not watching three more hours of whatever you're watching. Don't. Milana, complete my joy by not screaming so much. Please, please, complete my joy." And this is Paul's tactful way to appeal to them. Rather than rebuke them for the disunity, he appeals to the fact that they love him.

In here, he says, "Complete my joy by being of the same mind." Now, what's fascinating, he repeats this, being full accord and of one mind. Here he's not talking about uniformity. He's talking about unison. That's why I use the word harmony, that humility is the key to relational harmony, that we are not singing one voice, different voices, but we're singing in harmony. It's not uniformity, it's unison. And Paul's joy is wrapped up in their unity, in their unison, not their uniformity.

Harmonious relationships, they don't happen by accident. If you see a couple who've been married for decades and you see them holding hands as they're walking on the beach, there's a beautiful sunset, and they're always wearing shirts with khaki pants. Always. Always. And you see that. And as they're holding hands, you say, "Oh, they're so lucky. They're so fortunate." I'll tell you something. They didn't get there because of luck or just because of natural compatibility. They got there. They got there because of hard work. Relationships, they take work. And harmonious relationships take this mindset that St. Paul's talking about, mindset that works toward unity, works towards singing in unison and not uniformity.

He's not talking about drab intellectual conformity. He's not talking about thinking the same things. He's talking about not just being on the same page, he's talking about moving in the same direction, being on the same journey. It's not an expression of intellectual agreement but one of intent, one of disposition. We all have our different roles on the team. So we must all be growing and experiencing this desire, and this comes from the mind of Christ.

And by the way, this is so different from worldly conflict resolution, going to see a therapist or a marriage counselor who has no grounding in the gospel. Usually, the way that they seek resolution is by saying, "What do you want? And what do you want? And how can we get you to the point where both of you get what you want? What do you need to sacrifice a little bit? What do you need to sacrifice a little bit? And we'll get you to that ..." Scripture says no. No, that's not the way. The way to this unity and unison, the way is for you to sacrifice your own self. That's why he says same love. Have the same mind. Have the same love. The same love is talking about the love of Christ that's revealed in his incarnation, life, death, burial, and resurrection. We'll talk about that.

The final phrase in this verse is being in full accord and of one mind. And here, it's a little different in the Greek where he talks about being of one soul, that true unity isn't just organizational or outward. It's a matter of the heart. It's not automatic. It's deliberate action. I choose to be united. I choose to seek unity.

Christian unity is categorically different from any other kind of unity. And our world, by the way, celebrates unity. One of the reasons why it celebrates unity is because there's so little unity in the world. Perhaps unity around a sports team or common effort in a charitable cause, running a 5k together, going on a hunger walk. But usually, unity that's found in the world today is unity with people that think precisely like you do, that look precisely like you do, that vote precisely like you do. Christianity says no.

The gospel of Jesus Christ takes very different people, categorically different people and brings them together into one family. Unity is so rare. It's so hard to achieve and so difficult to preserve and sustain. That's why when the world sees it they're shocked by it. That's why Jesus said, "The world will know that you are my disciples because of what? Because of your love toward one another."

I'm going to pause here and say one of the things that I love so dearly about Mosaic is that we are a true mosaic. People from all over the world, people speaking dozens of languages, people in different life stages coming together and worshiping the same Christ, our world desperately needs more of that. And we've seen this with people dying because of racism. We've seen this with George Floyd. And this is over and over. It's people remembered by hashtags because of racism, because of institutional racism.

Now, I'll tell you this, it's not just a skin problem. It's a sin problem. And scripture says that every single one of us is a sinner. Every single one of us is driven by pride, be it racial pride, or financial pride, or national pride, and the gospel says no. We are to repent of that pride and accept the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Third, am I growing in selfishness or humility? Philippians 2:3 says, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. But in humility, count others more significant than yourselves." I'll just let you meditate on that. I can say so much about this, and I've learned from my own personal experience there is no amount of homiletical function that I can give you to get you to the point where you can do this. I can't do that, but the Holy Spirit can. This is so unnatural.

And St. Paul here says that the true obstacle to true unity isn't just a difference in opinion. That's not the obstacle to unity is that people have different opinions. The obstacle to unity is selfishness, and it's vanity. That's why I said humility is the key to true unity to relational harmony. Worldly conflict resolution goes like this: Stand up for your rights, be assertive, negotiate what you want. The technique is really balancing your needs against another person's needs, and here he says no. Stay away from selfish ambition. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit.

Here, in the Greek, this is a party spirit or a political spirit where you try to build up a following for yourself, putting your opponents down. And scripture says in Galatians 5 that both selfish ambition and conceit are fruit of the flesh. And conceit here is empty conceit, or in the Greek it's vain glory, kenodoxia, useless glory where you're puffed up with the sense of your own self-importance and you forget that everything that you have is from God.

1 Corinthians tells us, who made you to differ? Who made you to be a little different than anyone else? Who made you to be unique? It was God. He gave you the gifts. He gave you the abilities. He gave you the opportunities. He gave you the strength. He gives you every single heart beat. So why? Why are we puffed up with our useless glory?

He says, "We are to seek humility of mind. But in humility, count others more significant than yourselves." We're too self-focused. Even our insecurities, too much self-focus. We need to get our thoughts away from ourselves to the needs of others. And here the question is, am I supposed to be some kind of doormat? Am I supposed to just allow people to walk all over me? No, of course not. Of course not. But we are to start thinking about the needs of others. We are to realize that everything I have, intelligence, money, work ethic, everything is from Him and for Him. Also, we are to ...

This is where the gospel does truly humble us, where it brings us face to face with our sinfulness, with our own depravity. And if you're not growing in a deeper realization daily of your sinfulness before God, then you're not growing spiritually. The closer you get to God, the bigger he looks, the small we look. And that's a great place to be.

Four, am I putting the interests of others above my own? This is verse four. "Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others." By the way, this doesn't mean that we never say no to people. Jesus had moments where he would receive from the crowd. He would back away from the crowd in order to go and spend time with God, the Father. He knew that he was getting to the point where he was running on fumes, running on empty spiritually speaking. He needed to refuel and recharge. He understood that if he wasn't in a strong place spiritually and physically, he couldn't help people. Jesus often would say no to the needs of the crowds to spend time with the Father or to train up his disciples. So, he did have priorities, and he did all of that in order to make sure that he was a better servant of God.

Here, a question is, count others more significant than yourselves. Look to the interests of others. Whom are you not counting more significant than yourself? Whose interest of the people in your circle of influence, whose interest are you not looking to? Do you even know the interest of others? Are you a good listener? I say that a little tongue in cheek because people think I'm a terrible listener. I try. I'm growing at listening, and this happens only by the power of the Holy ... Are you a good listener? Jan Vezikov. Keep growing in that.

Number five, am I think with the mind of Christ? I'm going to spend the bulk of our time on this point because that's where St. Paul spends the bulk of his time. Am I growing? Am I thinking with the mind of Christ? How? By meditating on the incarnation, on the miracle that the incarnation is. This is verse five. "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus." You have access to the mind of Christ. You have access to the mind of the God of the universe. And the closer you get to God, the more time you spend with God, the more you study the holy scripture, you begin to think the thoughts of God. Your mind become in sync with the mind of Christ, and that's how transformation happens where your mind is in lockstep with the mind of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Look at Romans 12:1 and 2. "I appear to you, therefore, brothers, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, which is what is good, acceptable, and perfect."

You see that connection? Between being transformed by the renewal of your mind and discerning God's will, what's the connection there? The connection is when your mind is connected to the mind of God, of Christ, that's where transformation happens, and that's when you begin to understand what God's will is.

A lot of people ask, "What's the will of God for my life? What's the will of God for this season in my life?" I'll tell you what it is. The will of God for this season in your life is for you to start thinking the thoughts of Christ, and we get that by the power of the spirit from the holy scriptures. Jesus voluntarily left the highest position in the universe. This is the incarnation. Voluntary left the highest position in the universe. And from the highest of heights, he goes to the lowest of depths in order to rescue us from God's judgment, people, us, people who in no way deserved rescuing.

When we meditate on the incarnation that Jesus left the splendor, the purity of heaven, he comes into this wicked world and he actually ... Scripture says he doesn't just take our sin upon himself, he become our sin. He who knew no sin becomes sins that we might become, the righteousness of God. No personal sacrifice that we make can ever match what the glorious savior did for us.

"He existed in the form of God," verse six says. And the preexistence of Christ is that he was God. He is God before he was born to the Virgin Mary. Jesus Christ is not a created being. He's the second person of the triune God. John 1:1-3 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made." John 1:14, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth." Jesus in John 8 says, "Before Abraham was born, I am." Not I was, not I will be, I am. Jesus is God. Before he came to earth, he dwelled in indescribable glory, one with the Father, blessedness of divine being, and he was willing to leave all of that to come to earth. He humbled himself.

I don't know how to describe how hard this is. If anyone's become ... If you're a parent, you kind of understand this, especially if you had a career prior to having children, you've had career success. Then, you become a parent. Then, you're spending hours a day talking with a two-year-old. Then you start thinking like a two-year-old. There's a humility that needs to happen for you to connect with this person who's so little, and so dumb, and so brilliant at the same time. There's something like that. When you've tasted height, it's so hard to go low.

This past week, my brother got married. Actually, I'm preaching on Thursday. So he's getting married on Friday, but you're watching on Sunday, so he got married on Friday. Hopefully, Lord willing, that's going to work out. But, we went to New Hampshire to celebrate his this like a bachelor getaway of some friends. We rented a Ford Expedition, brand new. This things massive. We drove in comfort, in luxury. I came home, and I got into my Toyota Highlander, and I got a glimpse of what Jesus ... No. You can't even compare. But, it's something like that. There's incredible humility that happens with Christ.

And here, in verses 6 through 11, St. Paul gives us the Carmen Christi. This is a hymn. This is a song. The early church sang this in order to remind themselves daily of what Christ went through. Verse six, "Who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped." Jesus didn't treat his equality with God as a treasure to be greedily clutched, he resigned the glories of heavens for us. Verse seven, "He emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." He emptied himself. What does this mean? What does it mean that he made himself nothing?

Well, God can't cease to be God. Jesus didn't give up his divine attributes. However, he voluntarily limited his independent use of certain attributes, of certain prerogatives. His preincarnate glory was veiled, as scripture says, except for a brief time. We get this in the mountain of transfiguration where he takes three of his disciplines and he goes up in the mountain and they say his glory. They were struck by his glory. Or perhaps this glory was unveiled just a little bit when the soldiers came to the guard in Gethsemane in order to arrest him. They fall backwards after a flash of his glory.

How? How did he empty himself? How did he make himself nothing? By becoming a king, by coming as a glorious earthly ruler? No. He takes the form of a servant, the Greek word doulas of a slave. He didn't cease to be God in any sense, but he added to his divine nature, human nature, just like ours. It's not mixed, it's not blended. He was without sin, but he was subject to the consequence or results of the fall. Jesus grew tired. Jesus aged. Jesus died.

There was a time when God, the Son, was not a man, but there was never a time when God, the Son, was not. He became a man by taking flesh, adding flesh to himself. He didn't cease to be God, but he became man also. And by his union of natures in his person, he remains in that forever. In heaven, he is the God man with two natures inseparably joined, fully God and fully man.

Philippians 2:8, "And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." He took on a human form. He looked normal. He was a normal-looking guy. However, he was also glorious. He was God, and he humbled himself.

One of the catechism says that he is undiminished deity and perfect humanity united without confusion in one person forever. To deny that he was fully God or to deny that he was fully man, fully human is to veer into heresy. He didn't just become human. He didn't just become a servant or slave, but he actually subjected himself to death, and not just any death, the most embarrassing, humiliating, shameful death imaginable.

Jesus, he could've come down to earth as a king. He could've come down to earth in a different time. He could've come down to earth and forced people to serve him. He does not. He comes down. He serves, lives a perfect life, and then he goes to a cross crucifixion. It was a death that was anything but noble. It was horrible. It was ignoble. It was the death of a common criminal. For Jews or Hebrew theologians, dying on a cross was the lowest death you could possibly die because Deuteronomy says that he who hangs on a cross, he who hangs on a tree is accursed by God. For gentiles, death by crucifixion was the lowest, most despicable death imaginable.

The Roman poet Cicero says, "Far be the very name of a cross, not only from the body but even from the thoughts, the eyes, the ears of Roman citizens." It was the ultimate indignity beyond contempt, excruciating physical pain was only magnified by the degradation, by the humiliation, by the death of the ego, by the humility. So Jesus goes to the height of heights to the depth depths.

And by the way, not until I can give you all the words I can think of to describe how low this was, but not until we can get to heaven will we be able to ... When we see Christ in all his glory on that throne will we then begin to understand just how vast the chasm was of his drop from the height of heights to the depth of depths. Why? Why, Christ? Why'd you do that? Because of his vast love for us. And that right there, that's ... If that doesn't melt your heart, if that doesn't melt you, nothing will. And when your heart melts because of the gospel, that's when you can go back to verses three and four. That's when you can start thinking of others as more significant than yourselves because Christ did that for you.

Pride says my will be done. Humility, that's Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. Not my will, but yours be done. This is why humility is the heart of Christianity. Chris Austin says, "Humility is the foundation of Christian." Agustin says, "The precepts of Christianity are first, second, third, always humility."

C.S: Lewis says this the Mere Christianity, "Pride has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began. Pride always means enmity. It is enmity. Not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God. In God, you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that, and therefore know yourself as nothing in comparison, you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. Proud man is always looking down on things and people. And of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you." Christ comes down to get us to look up away from ourselves, away from naval gazing to Christ.

Practically, how can I get to a place where I treasure Christ's love more than ever? I'll tell you how. Try loving unlovable people. Try loving people who are hard to love. How do you love a porcupine? In the comments below. Chicken wing. How do you love a porcupine? Carefully. There's a lot of people that you're going to love carefully. And when you try to love unlovable people, you begin to realize how hard that is. You begin to realize how much effort it takes, how much you got to sacrifice your own comfort, sacrifice your own time, sacrifice your own desires. Then you begin to understand, oh my, that's what Christ did for me. He loved me not because I was lovable but because I he's loving.

And when we love people with action first, people for whom we do not feel love, I'll tell you this, that the feelings, the affection, they always follow the actions. Affection always follows action. In any single relationship, when you see that you have yourself sacrificed for this person, you heart begins to warm up to them. As you act lovingly, the feelings follow. Feelings follow action.

In Philippians 2:9, "Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name that is above every name." The crucified, risen, ascended Christ is in a place of supremacy on the throne at the right hand of God, the Father today. He's highly exalted. That's the only time in all the scripture the word is used. He's super exalted. He goes from the height of heights to the depths, a depths of depths back to the height of heights. Say that 10 times fast.

Jesus didn't exalt himself, he was exalted by God, the Father. I love that. I pointed this out multiple times. There's a humility in the trinity that God, the most glorious being, God the Father could say, "Worship me. Worship me. Worship me." Instead, he says, "Worship Christ." Holy Spirit says, "Worship Christ. Worship the Father." The Father and Christ say, "Worship the Holy Spirit." They deflect glory. They deflect exaltation. What an incredible God he is.

Acts 5:30-31, "The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." Well, what is the name that God the Father gave Christ? Is it Jesus? Not just Jesus. Is it Christ? Not just Christ.

Look at verse 10. "So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He's Lord to the glory of God the Father." Lord, this is the equivalent in the Old Testament for Yahweh, the name of God, a name so sacred that Hebrew believers, when they would read the Torah, when they would read the holy scripture, the Hebrew scriptures and they would get to the name of Yahweh, they wouldn't say Yahweh. They would say Adonai because it was so sacred.

And this sacred name is given to Jesus Christ. He is Lord. The one who made himself a slave, the one who made himself to serve, the one who empty himself, made himself nothing is Lord. When we see what he did, that gets us to a point where we realize how full of ourselves we are. If the God of the universe can empty himself by grace through faith, we can empty ourselves of our ego, of our pride, of our selfishness.

To get the full meaning of what scripture is saying here that Jesus is Lord, you got to go back to Isaiah 45. This is the text that St. Paul is actually quoting where God says, "Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By myself, I have sworn from my mouth has gone out, for my mouth has gone out in righteousness, a word that shall not return. To me every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall swear allegiance to me." To whom? To God. To Yahweh. St. Paul says, "God the Father gives Jesus the name Lord, a name that is above every name, and every knee shall bow to Yahweh, to Jesus our Lord."

Peter says this in Acts 2:33-36. "Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, 'The Lord said to my Lord, the Father says to Jesus, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, that Jesus, this Jesus whom you crucified.'"

St. Paul says Jesus has a name above every name. Jesus is currently sitting at the right hand of God the Father and we can have fellowship with this same Jesus through the spirit of Jesus, which is the Holy Spirit, as we learned in chapter one. And he says, "As sure as Christ has risen, verified historic fact, as sure as by fully God, fully man, the God man sitting on the throne in heaven, as sure as that, as sure as day, as sure as the day follows the night, every knee will bow to Jesus Christ, either willingly in humility in this life or forcibly, forced humility in the next." He says, "Every creature will submit to Christ. In heaven, that's all of the angels who bow willing before Christ. On earth, that's every Christian who will bow willingly before Jesus." "And every one else," he says, "under the earth that Satan and his powerful demonic forces and those in hell who will have to acknowledge the lordship of Christ."

Jesus dethroned himself to serve us, to forgive us for throning ourselves, to getting on the throne of God. He does the opposite of what Satan did. Pride does what Satan did as described in Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14:12-15, "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn." That's a reference to Satan. "How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low. You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the most high.' But you are brought down to Sheol, hell to the far reaches of the pit." Pride does what Satan did. Pride is the utmost complete anti God mindset, and humility does Jesus did as described in Philippians. Jesus descended. Jesus humbled. Jesus emptied. Jesus died for us.

And when you see that, when you see what Christ did, when you live your life at the foot of the cross, you can't but grow in humility. You meditate on the cross. When you look up to the cross and see that God man crucified for you, blood poured out in anguish, forgiving us, cut off from the Father and from the Holy Spirit, alienated for the first time in all of his existence where he cries out, "My God. My God. Why have you forsaken me?" A reference to the Father and a reference to the Holy Spirit. My God. My God. He did that for us. And when you live your life at the foot of the cross, you can't but grow in humility. And that's what St. Paul does here. He tries to turn our sight to Christ.

Have you bowed a knee to Christ? I call you to do that today. I plead with you. Bow not just your heart to Christ, bow your knees to Christ in repentance. Trust in Christ. At this moment, at that moment, all of your sins are forgiven. You're a child of God. Welcome to the family. That said, please pray with me.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word. Wow. What a rich, rich, incredible text this is. Lord, it's a text that easier to understand than to live. Actually, it's impossible to live. But Lord, I pray by the gospel and power of the Holy Spirit make us a church that embodies this text as the body of Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.