The Better Story: The Incarnate God.

Heavenly Father, we come before you as people from all sorts of different walks of life,

all sorts of different professions, stages in life.

Some of us have had excellent weeks, others have had really crummy weeks, weeks that they

wish they could do over or forget.

Yet here we are, Lord, both here at Ottawa Little Theatre and online.

And wherever we've come from, Lord, we pray that you would help us to quiet our minds,

to prepare our hearts, that we may hear and understand your word that we will read together

and look at together.

Lord, bless us this morning as we do so.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Terrific scene in The King's Speech, where King George VI finds out that his speech

therapist, Lionel Log, is a theatre actor and not a qualified speech therapist.

It's a wonderful scene.

I think it's in Westminster Abbey.

The King has this growing confidence in his speech therapist and a growing confidence in himself.

And he finds out, to his surprise, that his speech therapist is a fraud, or so he thinks.

His confidence in Lionel plummets.

So too does his confidence in his ability to be a strong king for a commonwealth going to war.

I think this is a great example to show us when something or someone that we trust in,

that we have confidence in, it turns out that they're not who we thought they were.

That it can crumble our confidence in just about everything.

Now, the example isn't the greatest because it turns out that Lionel's actually a fantastic

speech therapist.

So the example falls short.

But you get my point.

It matters that we have confidence in someone when they say they are something.

It's very important.

And that if that gets undermined, it is a very terrible thing for our confidence, for our lives.

Some of us are new to the Christian faith.

Some of us might not even be a part of the, be a Christian, but are seeking, are interested,

are interested in spiritual matters.

Some of you might have been at church since the day you can remember.

You feel like you have a robust faith.

Some of you have gone from a fantastic faith in your youth to absolutely abandoning the faith.

And maybe you're just coming back again for the first time.

Or you're in a season of return.

Wherever you may be on the spiritual spectrum, so to speak, we do have a lot of diversity here.

I'll ask you a question.

Who is Jesus?

Who is he?

If I, not in front of a bunch of people because that's rude to put somebody on the spot.

But if it was just you and me, and I said, who's Jesus?

Like, I'm not taking notes.

I'm not recording this.

I'm not going to tell George.

I'm like, who's Jesus?

How would you respond?

Is he just a great miracle worker?

Is he a prophet?

A really righteous holy man?

Is he a historical person that was no different than any other messianic figure in the first century?

But somehow his followers developed a bit of a fictitious myth around him.

Is he God?

Is he man?

Is he God and man?

Who is Jesus?

Why does this matter?

What bearing does it have on your life?

What bearing does it have on your faith?

Why does it matter who Jesus is?

So our text, our text is one of the very high points in the Bible when it comes to Christology.

That is the theology around who Jesus is, who the Christ is, who the Messiah is.

It's going to tell us a few things about who Jesus is.

We're dealing with six verses this morning, maybe seven.

It's a small portion of scripture, but this is absolutely packed with this Christology, with who Jesus really is.

So it will tell us a few things about him and why, if he isn't those things, he can't be Savior and Lord.

So we're going to be in Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 to 11.

Philippians 2:5–11

Matt read the portion of scripture for us.

But this, we'll jump into it in a moment, but this will tell us three things about Jesus, this portion of scripture.

That Jesus is God, and that as God he became a man, yet remained God.

A lot of this stuff is a bit of a mouthful.

Just stick with me.

Put on your thinking caps.

That Jesus is God, that as God became man, yet remained God.

The second thing, that Jesus became a servant and humbled himself by dying on a cross.

And the third thing, that God exalted Jesus to be Lord and King over all.

So let's take a look at the first thing.

That Jesus is God, and he became man, yet remained God.

Nowhere else in the Bible do we see the incarnation so robustly described as in verse 6 and 7.

We're just going to read verse 6 at first.

If you have your Bibles, please follow along.

Verse 6 says,

Who, though he, Jesus, was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

I just said that Jesus is God.

And yet here we have verse 6 saying that he was in the form of God.

I mean, I think it would be a bit nicer if it said that he was God.

This idea of the form of God, I mean, was it a hologram?

Obviously not.

There's no technology back then.

But was it just some kind of spirit that looked like that he was like God, but he wasn't really like God?

Like, what is it describing when it says that Jesus was in the form of God?

I am no Greek scholar, but it helps to dig deep into the original language.

The word used here to describe form, so the form of God, is essentially to say that Jesus, in the biggest megaphone that you get, is God.

To say that Jesus is in the form of God means that he fully and truly expresses what is described.

So it says here that Jesus is in the form of God.

It is saying that he is God.

Everything that God is, so too is Jesus.

That means that Jesus Christ had all of the attributes of God, his ability to know everything, that he's all powerful, that he's everywhere, that he is perfect, that he is unique, that he is one, that he is the source of beauty, the source of glory, the source of love.

Everything that God is, so too is Jesus.

As God, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus always was.

So he wasn't a created being.

He always existed.

So to say that Jesus was in the form of God, that one word just packs a whole punch, doesn't it?

Like, there's payload to that.

Jesus is fully God.

But if Jesus is God and equal to God, what, I mean, if we look at the second part of verse 6, it's, it kind of implies that he wasn't equal to God.

Read with me, this, the second part of verse 6.

Well, we'll read all of verse 6.

Who, though he was in the form of God, here it is, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

So what does, what does that mean?

What this tells us is that Jesus did not leverage his divine glory, his divine majesty, his divine rights, his prerogatives, as God when he became incarnate.

That God, the Son of God, took on human flesh but didn't cease to be God.

So what do I mean?

And this is where we have to just kind of go slowly through this.

The, the, the orthodox, the teaching of the scriptures that has been believed by the church for centuries and centuries has always affirmed that Jesus was fully man, yet fully God.

And for him to be fully man means that he has to be a human being.

And to be a human being inherently means that we are under the authority of God.

See, Jesus couldn't be a human being, fully a human being, if he wasn't under God's authority.

If he didn't give deference to God.

And yet this is exactly what we're seeing when we see the second part of verse 6, when it says that Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

It means he came to earth as a man while also still being fully God.

Let's continue on, verse 7.

Verse 7 says this,

Again, we have that, that, that word here, form.

That he became, by taking the form of a servant.

That he truly became a human being.

And again, as human beings, we are under the rule and reign of God.

Whether we, whether we think so or not.

We are under the authority of God.

It means that Jesus was fully a man and as a man, he submitted to all of what it took to be, to, to be a man.

But consider this again.

He empties himself.

He voluntarily suspends his divine right in order to become fully man.

So that he becomes truly, truly, and in its fullness, a human being.

But not only a human being.

So when Jesus empties himself, he doesn't cease to be God.

But he relinquishes all of his rights as God.

So that he can come under the authority of God.

That's a, that's two verses.

We still have a few more to go.

But that's, I mean, I've spent all week kind of laboring over this.

I'm, full confession, struggled with this.

And I ask the question, why does this matter?

Are we not just getting lost in the weeds?

Why does it matter of, of talking about God descending, but still remaining God, becoming fully man, but still fully God?

And does it seem like we're just splitting hairs?

Why does this matter?

Well, here's why it matters.

Something wonderful about God, excuse me, is that he is unchanging.

There is nothing to add to God or take away from God to make him better.

He, he is perfect in who he is.

There is, there is, there is an unchangingness about him.

He doesn't change his mind.

He doesn't say, hmm, I never considered that before.

There is nothing that he relies upon.

So he is an unchanging God.

In fact, everything that's good and true and beautiful find their origins in him.

So here's where it matters.

Therefore, when we see Jesus as being fully man and fully God, it means that everything Jesus does,

everything that Jesus does is a window to see the very character and essence of who God is.

He, Jesus, manifests the very character and essence of God on earth perfectly.

And it matters because sometimes we read in the scripture really tough things about Jesus.

Things that, that our modern sensibilities don't like.

Here's a great example.

Oh, before I give the example.

So we read things about Jesus that we don't really, don't really like.

Certain things that rub us the wrong way, that seem offensive.

And we are put in a, a bit of a, a conundrum.

Do we admit Jesus is, I don't know, a rather unpleasant person?

And then somehow that means God is unpleasant?

Or do we then just say, well, you know what?

Maybe Jesus wasn't God.

Maybe he emptied himself out of all of this kind of divine rights, but also his divine attributes.

So that Jesus isn't no more omnipresent or all-knowing than you or I, because he's fully man.

And there's a whole school of scholarship that, that looks at this.

Because it's, in a sense, it's easier, it's easier to deal with those hard passages of scripture if Jesus is just a man and not fully man and fully God.

Because then it would reflect something about God that's going to mess up our world.

So here's the example.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a video that went viral from a self-described progressive, progressive minister.

And he talked about how Jesus repented of his racism.

So in the story of the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus calls her a dog.

I mean, call any woman a dog.

She doesn't have to be Syrophoenician.

Like, don't do that, right?

So Jesus calls her a dog.

It's racist because Jews have this thing out for the Syrophoenicians.

But this woman spoke truth to power.

And what did Jesus do?

He repented of his racism.

He gives us the example that we too ought to repent of our racism.

Guys, you should repent of your racism if you're racist.

But what ends up happening is you take who Jesus is.

And because that makes you uncomfortable, you distort it.

You change it.

You shift the goalposts.

And all of a sudden, Jesus is no longer fully God.

And we help Jesus and God save face.

Hey, we're helping Jesus and God save face.

But here's the thing.

To strip Jesus of his identity as fully God and fully man renders him no more a savior than you or I.

And what we need to do as people who are committed to the Christian faith, committed to knowing and growing in Jesus,

is that we need to wrestle and struggle through some of those hard points of Scripture.

Reading the Bible together as a community, as individuals.

And never interpreting Scripture against Scripture.

So to never interpret that whole instance of the Syrophoenician woman against Philippians 2 that we're reading today.

But this requires struggle.

You know what the easy way out?

The easy way out is to say that Jesus repented of his racism.

Like open and shut case.

That's the easy way out.

The hard way, the difficult way, the courageous way is to struggle with that.

If Jesus truly is man, fully man, 100% man, and fully God, 100% God.

And remember that Jesus perfectly expresses the character and essence of who God is when we read about him in the Scriptures.

Then are we going to submit to Scripture?

Or are we going to submit Scripture to us?

Are we going to submit to Jesus or submit Jesus to us?

It matters who Jesus is.

Who is Jesus?

So Jesus, you know, there's those hard bits of Scripture.

But there's also bits of Scripture if we're talking about Jesus being the perfect example on earth of who God is, his character and his glory.

Then we can also look at an instance where Jesus takes off his outer garment and wraps a towel around his waist.

And one after another cleans the filth, the stink, the grime off of his disciples' feet.

And that reflects the very heart of who God is.

A servant God.

A God that loves so deeply.

A God that wishes to restore, to clean, to cleanse, to fix.

We get a window into the very character of who God is.

If Jesus isn't God, then he's washed some disciples' feet.

He's a nice guy.

Call him a nice guy.

I don't know.

It's good.

He washed his disciples' feet.

It's great.

But then it's no longer a window into the heart of who God is.

But he doesn't just clean feet, does he?

He doesn't just show his service by cleaning feet, does he?

Look with me at verse 8.

And being found in human form.

Again, that word form.

You see it.

This is the third time.

Being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.

Even death on a cross.

Why did Jesus empty himself of his divine rights?

So that he would show the ultimate form of service to others.

To you, to me.

By dying for sins that he didn't commit.

To pay the penalty that he didn't deserve.

To take the punishment upon himself.

For you and for me.

That's service.

He humbles himself.

Not only from heaven to earth.

But then to earth.

To becoming a servant or a slave.

And not only to become a servant or a slave.

But continuing to humble himself to the very lowest of low.

Because in the first century, there was nothing.

Nothing worse than getting crucified.

Cicero says this of the crucifixion.

He says the most cruel and hideous form of punishment.

Far be the very name of a cross.

Not only from the body.

But even from the thought.

The eyes.

The ears of Roman citizens.

You don't even mention a crucifix in polite society.

Roman citizens didn't get crucified.

I mean the lowest of the low got crucified.

And Jesus lowers himself to the very low.

Why?

Because then he can identify with you and with me.

And everybody above and below.

That there's nobody that is a human being that he can't identify with.

So he empties himself of his divine prerogatives.

And then becomes the incarnate son of God.

And then humbles himself to the very lowest rung of what it means to be a human being.

How does...

If Jesus is this window into the very character, the perfect character of God, what does that tell us about God?

I don't like taking much charity from people.

I like having my charity ledger nice and in the black.

I don't like when people give and all too much makes me feel uncomfortable.

I usually shift my feet and look down.

I'm uncomfortable with it.

What can I possibly give God who empties himself and humbles himself and dies on my behalf because of love?

What can you possibly give to God in repayment?

How can you possibly say,

I mean, you owed me like I loved you a whole bunch or that was really great.

I'll get you back for that.

The ultimate form of love, the self-giving, self-humbling, selfless love.

Jesus becoming a servant and humbling self on the cross.

So if he can identify with the lowest rung of society, can he identify with you?

Can he know what you are going through?

Can he empathize with your hurting, with feelings of abandonment, with feelings of forgottenness,

from loneliness, from feeling like you are a worm?

Can he relate?

He can.

Emphatically, yes.

Yes, he can.

And he couldn't do it if he wasn't fully God.

And he couldn't do it if he wasn't fully human.

He would have just been any old chap that died on a cross of the thousands of the tens of thousands

that died on a cross at the hands of the Romans.

God not only identifies with the depth of our brokenness,

but what he does is he takes that banner that is over us,

that label that is on our breast that says sinner,

that says despised,

that says condemned,

that says no hope.

And he takes it off.

And he says forgiven,

redeemed.

He says you're part of my family now.

Irrevocable.

Love becomes the very thing that we see on the cross,

and we see the very character of God being a God of love.

And the thing about this God of love is that he has always been a God of love.

And this is why the Trinitarian understanding of God is the only one that works.

Because God has always loved.

It's not that he just started loving when he created the world,

or he was in the garden with Adam and Eve,

or when he made the promise to Abraham,

or rescued the Israelites from Egypt,

or made these wonderful declarations of love to Israel through the prophets,

or when Jesus came.

No, he was unchanging.

Remember, he's an unchanging God.

So he's always loved.

And the thing with love,

as much as you want to be a person that loves yourself,

it's okay.

You can't,

love has to have an object.

You have to love something outside of you.

So,

God the Father has always loved God the Son,

and God the Son has always loved God the Father,

and the Holy Spirit,

being the third member of the Trinity,

loves the Father and loves the Son,

but is the very love that the Father loves the Son,

and the Son loves the Father.

It's just,

the Godhead is love.

And we see that in what Christ has done,

by laying down his life for you,

and for me.

This ultimate picture,

into the very character and essence of who God is.

So Jesus dies on the cross,

and does he stay dead?

He does not.

He rises again,

and this is where the rubber hits the road

when it comes to Jesus' divinity,

because we all are going to die.

I mean, this past year,

death has been thrust in our face.

Regardless of where you land on,

on how you feel about COVID-19 or not,

but death has been thrust on our face.

Every morning,

I make breakfast for the kids,

listen to 1310 News.

It's exhausting.

Everything in the morning is about case counts,

or lockdowns,

or we're out of a lockdown,

or vaccines are coming,

and no vaccines.

And you,

I mean,

you're living it with me.

And it's just,

it's just there.

It's just there in your face.

The mortality of humanity this past year

has been thrust upon us,

and when we die,

we die.

Nobody is,

I don't know,

jumping out of a fridge at the morgue

three days later.

Nobody is clawing their way out of a casket

three days later.

If Jesus is truly God,

then,

if he rises,

if he rises from the dead,

that he is truly God.

That death has no bearing on him anymore.

And the rest of our passage communicates this to us,

that Jesus does not stay dead.

We'll finish off here,

verses 9 to 11.

Therefore God has highly exalted him,

Jesus,

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.

Not only does Jesus rise from the grave,

it's implied here.

He's dead,

but then here he is,

he's risen up.

It's not that he's just

rising from the grave,

that he's resurrected,

defeating sin and death forever,

but he is also exalted by God

to the very highest place,

the highest authority.

Jesus,

who refused to count equality with God,

a thing to hold on to,

a thing to be grasped,

has it bestowed on him

because he was in perfect obedience

to God the Father

by laying down his life

as a servant on the cross.

You know what we try to do?

We try to grasp at God,

at the divinity.

This was what caused Adam to fall

in the garden.

He counted himself as equal to God.

I'm going to reach up,

and what happens?

He gets humbled in the most

just horrible way.

No more relationship with God.

No more union with God.

But what does Christ do?

He humbles himself.

And then is elevated.

It's a complete reversal.

These verses emphatically declare

that the incarnate Jesus

is indeed God himself,

and not just God,

but he bears the name of God,

the divine name,

the name that we see

when God visits Moses

at the burning bush.

I am who I am.

I have always existed.

The only God,

the divine name,

is given to Jesus.

Not only that,

but all authority

is given to him as well,

that at the name of Jesus,

every knee will bow,

every tongue will confess.

Isaiah 42 says,

God shares his name

with nobody.

A bit later,

Isaiah 45 says,

that all knees will bow,

all tongues will confess,

that God is the Lord.

Jesus is exalted

to his rightful place

with the Father

with all the honor

and dominion

over all of the universe.

that he is king,

that God is finally king.

It's a wonderful picture

of the end of the age,

the consummation

of all of time,

the very pinnacle

of the story.

This entire section,

it's written in a letter

that Paul writes

to the Philippian church,

but it is a hymn of praise.

It is a liturgy

of just absolute astonishment

and praise and wonder

to who God is,

to who Jesus is,

that he is God himself.

But here's the thing.

The Christian faith

starts and ends with Jesus.

His life, his death,

his resurrection,

his exaltation,

we see it all

in these six verses.

And inherent to that

is Jesus being supernatural.

That this whole thing

is supernatural.

That people don't rise

from the dead.

People don't do miracles.

The Bible is full

of supernatural things.

And these claims,

if they are removed,

it's like putting dynamite

around a house

and lighting the fuse.

The foundation crumbles.

There's no more house.

And if you struggle

with this,

I don't blame you.

We swim

in

very, very

modern

waters.

We are

rationalists.

Whatever we see

with our

eyes,

whatever we can

empirically measure

with our science,

and this isn't like

a hit against science,

but that's the only thing

that exists.

We are

anti-supernatural.

So if you struggle

with this,

listen,

I'm with you.

I struggle with this

as well.

But here's the thing.

This is a worldview.

This is a belief system

that's just

as much based

on faith

as ours.

And this belief system

at best

is flat

and 2D.

It doesn't

celebrate

the good,

the true

and the beautiful.

It doesn't recognize

that there is

a source

of all goodness.

It somehow

puts man

at the pinnacle.

And we have

limitations.

So at best,

we create

this world

that's

rife

with limitations.

It's never

what God

intended it

to be.

In fact,

it's actually

the opposite

of verses

3 and 4

of Philippians

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2.

If you want

to quickly

look at that,

it says this,

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

interest,

but also

to the interest

of others.

Our world

pays lip service

to this.

I pay lip service

to this,

but my

default

is the

opposite.

It is.

Your default

is the

opposite.

Our world's

default

is the

opposite.

When we

put ourselves

at the

throne

of God,

when we

are the

ones

who are

writing

the story.

But if

these grand

stories,

these big

narratives

is what

our society

is built

on,

consider

the biblical

story,

the biblical

narrative,

that God

himself makes

everything good

and that we

try to go

after God

and we

utterly failed

and have spent

all of human

history trying

to achieve the

very thing that

we rejected,

but that we

deeply desire.

And God

doesn't leave

us in our

terrible,

pitiable state.

He condescends.

He becomes

fully man,

yet remaining

fully God.

and dies

in our

place,

redeeming us

again,

uniting us

once again

with God

himself.

So that

the very

thing that

we've gone

after with

our pursuits

of people,

places,

or things,

we find in

God.

And our

history,

from the

moment we

have put our

faith and

trust and

hope in

Jesus,

is to enjoy

him forever.

forever.

That God

is a God

that condescends,

that meets

us because

of love.

That is

three-dimensional.

That has

meat to it,

that has

weight to it.

And all of

our best

stories that

we see in

film,

or in

theater,

or that we

read,

they all have

hints of

this.

They all have

hints of

redemption.

They all have

hints of

a self-sacrificing

for the

betterment of

somebody else.

And they're

just little

whispers of

the gospel

and of who

God actually

is.

If Jesus

isn't God,

if the

incarnation

isn't real,

if Jesus

died as

a regular

criminal,

didn't rise

from the

grave,

is not

at the

Father's

side,

is not

Lord and

King,

has not

saved you,

then take

next Friday

and Sunday

off.

And while

you're at

it,

just be

done with

reading the

Bible.

Prayers are

kind of

tedious,

so be

done with

that as

well.

Our faith

rises and

falls on

who Jesus

is.

And he

is fully

man and

fully God,

and the

scriptures tell

a better

story.

Heavenly

Father, we

thank you so

much for

your goodness

and kindness

that we do

not deserve,

that you

humbled

yourself,

your son

humbled

himself,

emptied

himself,

lived a

perfect human

life,

fully God,

fully man,

and suffered

on our

behalf so

that we

might be

united with

him,

so that we

would have

the mind

of Christ

to know

him and

to love

him and

to be in

communion and

fellowship with

him,

to live

lives that

then reflect

his goodness

and glory,

and he did

it all for

our sakes,

before we

were even

a twinkle in

our father's

eye,

before we

were even

known he

died for us,

while we

were still

sinners,

while we

were still

hanging out

with death

spiritually.

So Lord,

I pray that

you would

help us

this week

as we

enter into

Holy Week

to behold

Christ,

fully man

and fully

God,

that we

would read

scripture,

read the

gospels,

read the

entirety of

the Bible

in light

of that,

and if we

struggle with

it,

Lord,

please have

mercy on

us and

help us

as we

struggle.

We are

prone to

wander.

Lord,

we feel

it.

So Lord,

please help

us bolster

our faith,

help us to

trust in

the truth of

the scripture,

to take the

scripture as

it is,

to not make

excuses.

Lord,

we love

you,

help us to

love you

more.

Lord,

we believe

in you,

help us to

believe in

you more.

Help us to

embrace the

beauty of

this perfect

and good

story.

In Jesus'

name,

Amen.