Philippians 2:5-11 - Jesus Christ the Servant King

Well, brethren, it's uh it's a real joy for me to be with you uh on on this occasion.

Um I know the main event that brings me into your country is uh that of uh the Getty uh Singh conference, but it's it's also good to uh have the opportunity uh to be here.

As Jim said, we met a few years ago, and so when he mentioned the opportunity for me to uh come and speak at this conference, uh in in Zambia we use the phrase I didn't even touch the grass that suggests hesitation.

So I didn't even hesitate uh to say let me come over.

And uh usually when it's my first opportunity to speak at an event, I want to speak on uh the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ straight.

And uh I've been doing that for a number of years because that's what unites us.

It's the uh the the greatest message that can ever be given to any uh group of people anywhere in the world.

And so uh I know you've been hearing about Christ, Christ, Christ.

Well, here he is again being offered to you uh through Philippians and chapter two.

So please do turn with me there, Philippians 2, and um I'll commence reading from the fifth verse all the way to verse 11, Philippians 2, and I'm reading from the English Standard Version.

My message is entitled Jesus Christ the servant King.

Now, strictly speaking, it should have been Jesus Christ, the King, servant King.

Because as you soon notice, we will begin with him in his pre-existent state as King and Lord over all, then he comes into that role of servanthood before being relaunched into his role for all eternity as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

However, there we are, Jesus Christ, the servant King.

The Bible reads there 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 emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human likeness or 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.

If you're familiar with the New Testament epistles, you will know that there is nothing strange about the Apostle Paul writing constantly about the Lord Jesus Christ through his epistles.

However, what makes the book or the letter to the Philippians unique is the amount of joy that oozes out of this letter.

You can almost forget the fact that this was being written from a prison in the Roman context without the kind of comforts and amenities that prisons, for instance, around here probably would have.

And yes, anyone who has something of an experience of planting a successful church will have a unique relationship with it and rejoice in that church.

But it was much more than that.

Here was a church that then took up the bulk of his support with his team as they then went on to plant further churches in the province of Macedonia and then from there into the province of Achaia, all the way to the planting of the Corinthian church.

And so Paul, no doubt, rejoiced in that kind of church that is not just a product of his own ministry, but becomes a partner for the ongoing ministry that he continues having.

And it is out of that that Paul was rejoicing in what he calls in the first chapter the partnership, the fellowship, the koinonia that he continued to have with this particular church.

However, as he enters into chapter two, it's fairly evident that there may have been some concerns in the heart of the Apostle Paul with respect to a threatening disunity within the context of the church that might be because of personal interests, personal agendas, and often it's the issue of ego.

I must be on top and I need to win.

That individuals forget that the great commandment of God is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

And the second, which is like unto it, is you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.

In other words, the Christian faith is about love, it's about a genuine concern for others, a deep concern for others.

May I add, a sacrificial concern for others.

And it's not just a demand that God places on us, it's something he himself exemplified through his saving work.

And it's this that the apostle Paul then deals with in this particular passage of scripture.

And the way he handles it through what appears to be a piece of hymnody put together in the first century church is by taking the Philippians through the pre-existent Christ, the humiliated Christ, and the exalted Christ.

Let's go through that as we look at this Jesus as the servant king.

Well, as I already hinted to you, it would have been right for us to say the king, servant king, because we begin with where he actually was, the station he occupied before he came down to earth.

We already read that in verse 5, where the apostle Paul captures these words that we ought to have this mind among ourselves, which is ours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

We're told there that he was in the form of God.

Or, as some other versions may read, he was in very nature God.

In other words, he had everything about him that speaks about who God is.

We know for a fact from John 1 and verse 1 that John introduces his first gospel or his first letter to the churches, which is the gospel, in these words.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

That word there is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, his person.

That he was with God in the sense that he is one of the persons of the Trinity and he was God Himself.

But we need to also appreciate that it's not simply that he was God, but he also enjoyed the full splendor and glory that attends the Godhead.

And so, for instance, when he was praying in John 17, in what we normally refer to as the high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, we hear him saying to the Father in verse 5 these words.

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence, listen to this, with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

In other words, the glory of God in all its magnificence was also around the being, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Or as Paul later writing to the Colossians puts it in Colossians 1 and verse 15, he is the image of the invisible God.

He is the image of the invisible God.

In other words, everything that you see about this great and glorious being who created the entire universe, worshipped by thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand angels, is true about this being, Jesus.

The glory, the honor, the power, the wealth, the wisdom, the strength, and the praise.

All that is ascribed to God was true of him.

And that's the position that the apostle Paul goes on to say in our text that he did not grasp, who, though in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

In other words, it was something he was willing to set aside so that he can become a servant.

Why?

As an act of love.

As an act of love for us, he was willing to put a covering over that so that he could come into our situation to save us.

Think for a moment.

Why should God, who has everything that he ever needs, sacrifice willingly in that way for us?

Let's quickly go into what that meant for him to let go, so to speak, for our good.

In his humiliation, he says this that, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in likeness of man, the likeness of man, and then one step further.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself, may I add, further by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Now, if you were familiar with the Roman world and what an ignoble death, death on the cross was, you would gasp the moment you hear those words.

That he who is God eternal should reach such depths, should shock everything in your particular system.

The Apostle Paul captures something of this in 2 Corinthians and chapter 8, speaking in terms of wealth and poverty.

2 Corinthians 8 and verse 9.

We are told there, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, we've just spoken about something of that richness, yet for your sake he became poor.

And we'll look at that in a moment or two, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

It was a deliberate act on his part, it was self-humiliation, it was a self-empting that made the disciples find it extremely difficult to accept.

You remember when you put a towel around his waist, having taken off his outer garment and got on his knees to begin washing their feet.

The outspoken.

Peter quickly said, Hang on, okay, you've done a lot that shows sabbathood.

You ain't gonna do this.

Just recently, uh before coming here, uh during our master's program, uh we had uh Dr.

Borkam speaking to our students, and we had lunch together.

And so while we're eating, I I realized that time was running out.

And so uh instead of waiting until the end, I stood up to get their empty plates.

We almost had a fight as the students completely resisted it.

No, you can't take these plates.

The very first student was the one we began to tag with over that plate.

Yeah, so you you can understand something of this.

You doing this?

No.

But Jesus insisted that is what he had come to do.

Well, thankfully, as we were citing the Westminster Confession, we went through some of those ways in which Jesus humbled himself.

Just taking on himself human nature with all its limitations was a self-humbling experience.

Remember how in the book of John and chapter 4 they were going from one town to the other, and Jesus was tired.

He sat down by a well and said to the other guys, yeah, go into town and and buy the food and bring it here.

He actually went through that.

But more than that, it it meant he actually suffered in every meaningful way because he took upon himself our nature in something of its fallen condition.

So it was not just the fact that he could get tired, but he could literally suffer.

And so when he was undergoing that trial and was scourged and beaten and finally nailed to the cross, there were there was nothing to limit the amount of suffering that takes place because of that.

Yes, it was without sin.

But let me add, he was tempted.

The Bible says, in every way, yet without sin.

How that happened to one who is intrinsically holy in every sense beats our minds.

But hey, God's truth is that he was tempted, and one way in which we see it is when he is in Gethsemane and he is about to undergo the payment of that price for all his people, and the way in which, even prior to that, he is saying to his disciples that my soul is in anguish almost to the point of death, and then he would say, Now, should I hold back from this hour?

No, for that's why I came.

So every moment, every day, every week leading towards the cross was the thought: should I hold back?

Should I turn around?

Should I cancel this entire event?

It was in his hands to do so.

It was excruciatingly painful.

And then when he is in Gethsemane and he's on his knees pleading with God, Father, if it be your will, let this cup be turned away.

But not my will, but yours be done.

Tempted and tried and still going forward, even when he was on the cross.

He had the power to stop everything, he had the power listening to the people saying, If you are the Christ, come down and we will believe in you.

He could have easily jumped down, superhero, Marvel, comics, or movies type of.

Achievement.

He could have done it.

But he remained there as God's wrath was now finally poured on him to its very dregs.

And he cried, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

In the midst of the travail of his soul and died.

He allowed himself to be despised, to be mocked, to be beaten, to be scourged, to be forsaken by the Father, to be crucified.

Have you paused to think that all that was one who brought himself down to be as a servant?

A servant to save others, to save you and me.

Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4 speaks about this.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

The Bible says, Galatians 4, verse 4, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law.

Galatians 4:4

He who was above the law, who was the lawgiver himself, brings himself under it, that he might be subject to it.

In other words, if I do not obey, I must be punished for it.

Born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Again, just to pause for a moment, to think that's for me.

That's for me.

As Charles Wesley points out, and can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior's blood?

Died he for me who caused his pain.

It's me who has caused this, and he deliberately does this.

Me who him to death pursued.

Amazing.

Amazing.

How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Basically, it blows my mind.

And then quickly, his exaltation.

Having died this way on the cross, the Bible goes on to say in verse 9, 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.

The best way to put this is this.

Yes.

Down in the grave he lay.

Jesus our Savior.

But up from the grave he arose.

Death could not keep its prey.

Out of question.

But I want us to capture this therefore in the statement there.

Therefore.

In other words, it was a fruit, a reward, something that came out of Jesus' self-humiliation.

It was because his work was a result of an agreement that was there in eternity, what we call in theological circles the covenant of redemption.

It was out of that, or the covenant of grace, it was out of that agreement that Jesus Christ came to play his role.

All that humiliation, it was in obedience to the Father out of that agreement.

And the Father had also agreed that he would provide for him a body that he would consequently live in.

And that having died, having paid the price, having atoned for the sins of his people, the father would now raise him from the dead, exalt him to his right side, his right hand side, and make him King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Hand over the reins of history into his hands for the purpose of bringing his elect people into the kingdom.

And when the last of them comes in, he rolls up history, winds it all up, ushers in that eternal kingdom in which we would be forever.

And that's therefore what this little there for is symbolizing.

That he had done his part.

And so the father raised him from the dead, brought, ascended him to his right side, gave him that coronation as King of Kings, and in the end will bring him back to wrap up the whole of history.

And here is the point: every knee shall bow.

Every knee, yours included.

And it doesn't matter whether you are one who acknowledges Christ as Lord and Savior or you don't, on that day, every knee shall bow to him, and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord.

And that's the reason why we take this message to every nation and every tribe and every people group on earth.

It is so that they might own him as Lord now rather than then.

Because if they own him as Lord now, it is still in the period of grace, and consequently they receive his forgiveness.

If they only bow to him, then it will be too late.

They will bow, they will confess, and then they will be sent to hell to pay for it forever.

So the point we need to process here has to do with whether, as you listen to me today, you have bowed your knee to Christ, whether you have already owned him as Lord, whether you currently rejoice in his lordship, that you follow his word, to borrow his own words in the Great Commission, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey or to observe everything that I have commanded you.

Are you in that company now where you have abandoned your rebellion and your even your self-righteousness in order to be part of a community of God's people under his lordship?

And notice the way it ends there, to the glory of God the Father.

In other words, your desire, your passion, your everything now is God be glorified in my life.

Be glorified in my life.

Whether in life or in death, I am now all yours.

Well, that's what Jesus has done as the great servant king.

It's all there within the context of his attitude that he allows himself to be the vehicle of the well-being of hell-bound sinners, to turn them from destruction to wholeness and blessedness for all eternity, to be the means of that at great cost to himself, leaving everything else to God, the exaltation to God.

And Paul is saying, that's our example.

That's what you, Philippians, should be doing.

You ought to be serving one another and leaving the honoring and exaltation to God.

Have the attitude that was in Christ to also be true of you.

A love, a true love that's genuinely interested to turn the virtues from negative to positive for others.

To turn the fortunes from negative to positive for others.

Is that true of you?

Today.

Is that true of you?

Has Jesus changed your heart so that your chief desire is his glory through your life being a blessing to others, whatever the cost?

Let's pray.

Eternal and gracious God.

These things are easier said than done.

But thank you for the glorious person and example of our Lord Jesus Christ, the servant King.

Oh Lord, when we think of the depth to which he went, considering the height from which he came, we see that you can never ask too much from us.

Help us, O Lord, to set aside our little egos for the sake of your glory through your church.

Amen.