"The Humility of Christ" Philippians 2:1–11

Before we open God's word, let's take a moment and pray.

Father, please come with might to do only what you can do.

Open blind eyes, enliven dead bones, make hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.

Lord, we need your help to know you.

So as we come before you, we open your word.

Lord, minister to us.

Help us, guide us.

Lord, help us to know the joy of living for you, being citizens of heaven here on earth,

and being a part of your church.

Lord, what a wonderful blessing.

Impress that upon us this morning.

Pray all of this in Christ's mighty name.

Amen.

We are pretty much, I guess, out of cold and flu season.

Maybe I shouldn't say that too right now because we could just be entering into a new wave of it, God forbid.

But we get sick, okay?

Cold and flu is one thing.

Other sicknesses, more difficult to battle.

We see a doctor.

We get medicine.

We do some kind of therapy.

And we recover.

There's a sickness that is of the soul.

That is not easily dealt with.

The sickness is a poison, in fact.

And it is selfishness.

It's a sickness that's not necessarily evident.

It's easily hid.

The symptoms are not seen at first glance.

However, the effects of it, the symptoms of this sickness, of this poison,

hinder our ability to love, hinder our ability to have friends and to be good friends,

to have community, to have joy.

It is a poison which no earthly doctor can fix.

No medicine can be prescribed.

It requires an antidote that, unfortunately, many a selfish heart rejects, pushes back upon.

You know, the interesting and ironic thing about our day is that we are a society that enjoys unbelievable amounts of technology

that promise a complete transformation of how we live, a betterment of life.

If you're familiar with the academic Stephen Pinker, he's a Canadian guy.

He is convinced that with technology, with this kind of progress, we are the happiest people on planet Earth.

And ironically, as we become more knowledgeable, we are able to identify problems.

We find ourselves more and more disconnected from people.

We find ourselves not flourishing with community and friendships, but in fact the opposite,

that we are more separated, more disconnected, more lonely.

And a big part of that is the technology that we have and the world that we live in

hasn't yet figured out how to deal with selfishness.

We want to belong.

We want to be a part of something.

But such a unity that we want is the antithesis of the selfish reality that we inhabit.

The unity that we desire makes no room and gives no quarter for selfishness.

So naturally, that kind of unity is impossible to enjoy unless we have both a picture of what it looks like,

but also the strength to acquire it or to grow into it.

Paul, we're in our third week of Philippians.

We looked at 1 to 11 on week 1, which was kind of the introduction.

Last week was kind of the continuing into the introduction, but a bit of a bridge into the body of the letter.

And now we get into the body of the letter.

And the first thing that Paul commends to his church in Philippi, to his disciples in Philippi,

is that they would be unified, that they would have joy by being connected to one another.

And part and parcel to this is being selfless, is to resist and to reject selfishness.

And the way Paul describes it, it's implied that it is a very, very, very difficult, maybe impossible thing.

This selfless unity, Paul will tell us, is not a matter of willing it to be,

but of looking actually to God himself for both this example and the strength to live out that example.

So we're going to be looking at, so Brad read chapter 2, verses 1 to 11.

We're going to back it up into chapter 1, verses 27, and then we'll read all the way to 2, verse 11.

And we're going to look at, Paul's going to break it up in really, in very kind of clear ways.

He's going to look at this section and lay out for us a unity expressed.

And then, so he's going to talk about what unity is, what it isn't, what we need to watch out for,

what we need to embrace, a unity expressed.

Then he will give the ultimate example, humility displayed.

We'll get into, it's called the Christ hymn.

The theologians, they call this Christ hymn.

And really, and I'll mention this when we get to it,

if scripture is like a mountain range, this might be a peak.

And it might even be the peak in all of scripture.

Okay, it's worth weeks, maybe months of meditation every Sunday throughout the week.

We're going to try to hammer it out in about a half hour, all right?

So, you know, consider that as we read it.

But verses 5 to 8, humility displayed.

And finally, we'll get to verses 9 to 11.

And it will be glory realized.

And in all, in the entirety of this section, we will see how unity is something a lot more than just some nice how do you do's on a Sunday.

How was your week?

How are things going?

All very good stuff.

I encourage how do you do's.

It's something much deeper than this.

In fact, it is reflected in the very Godhead himself.

So, we'll jump right into it.

If you have a scripture journal, follow along with me.

We will be on page 10.

And actually, just page 10.

The entire section is, we'll be on page 10.

So, a unity displayed.

Like I mentioned, we left off in chapter 1 with Paul.

Paul, if you remember from last week, being willing to sacrifice.

This is incredible.

Not his life for the Philippians, but his death for the Philippians.

Paul wants to, he's in Roman prison.

He would much rather just to be executed and go to heaven.

Not because he has a death wish.

It's because he is so excited to embrace his Lord and being in his presence forever.

So, Paul, interestingly, is willing to sacrifice his death so that he could live for the Philippian church.

And specifically, that they would progress in the faith joyfully.

And that they would learn in deeper measure how to glory in Christ.

So, this next section then, Paul spells out what this progress and joy in the faith looks like.

And, again, we've talked about it already, it is expressed in unity with one another.

So, there's two parts in this section.

We're going to look at the first part, 27 to verse 30.

And this first section focuses on a unity that stands firm against pressure.

I'm going to read it again.

It's helpful if you can read along with me.

Verses 27 to 30.

And it says this.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

So that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you.

That you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

And not frightened in anything by your opponents.

It's a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.

Engage in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

How does Paul expect the Philippians to joyfully progress in the gospel?

To have lives worthy of the gospel.

And specifically, that they would have a unity of mind and resolve.

Which is to say that they would believe the same thing.

They'd have proper belief together.

That would lead to proper action.

In the early days of our church, we were having Bible studies on Zoom.

And one of the things I would say a number of times is that orthodoxy leads to orthopraxy.

The right thinking of God leads to obeying him in the ways that he wants us to live.

This is what Paul is calling the Philippians to today, or in this section.

So when he talks about standing firm with one spirit, having one mind, striving together for the gospel, this is precisely what he's getting at.

It means that we don't have the luxury of having boutique beliefs in the church.

It doesn't mean that you can't differ on some of the important but peripheral doctrines.

But as it pertains, for instance, for the Nicene Creed, we don't have the liberty to push against that.

And then to say that we are orthodox Christians.

We can't somehow say that Jesus didn't really come in the flesh.

We'll really hammer on to that shortly, or look at that shortly.

We don't have that luxury.

We don't have the luxury of saying that God is actually one God that takes different forms at various times.

But he is one God, but three persons, but one God.

There's core aspects to our faith that are non-negotiable.

In addition to that, we see also in the ESV, we don't really get it in the same way as the original language.

But in the ESV, it says,

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Again, editors, it's not necessarily wrong.

They've decided to go in a specific direction.

But in doing so, they've missed a definition of another translation of how verse 27 could go.

And another translation would literally be Paul calling them to live out their heavenly citizenship in a worthy manner.

God's people were to be an outpost of heaven in Philippi,

representing the culture and the values and the mission of God to the people among whom they lived.

And this is no small charge, and it's no kind of nice thing that Paul's saying.

For in Philippi, they had the pride of being a legitimate Roman colony.

They were Romans.

And therefore, they were like an outpost of Rome outside of Italy.

They were in Macedonia.

What is today Macedonia?

But they were like a little Rome.

And what Paul is saying,

Listen, fine.

But your real citizenship is in heaven.

But you're on earth.

So act like a little heaven on earth.

The culture, the values, the mentality of heaven,

the joy and the flourishing, the life everlasting,

proclaiming the goodness of God.

This is the call on your life.

You're to be citizens of heaven.

Therefore, the guarantor of their life,

the real guarantor of their life was not Nero,

but it was Jesus Christ himself.

And they were to live out and promote this good news,

this reality, this heavenness together.

Why together?

You can't be a citizen of the Republic of Daniel.

Daniel can't just be one population one.

It doesn't work that way.

Okay?

You can't be a citizen just by yourself.

You're a citizen among other citizens.

You're a part of something much bigger and greater.

And therefore, the call is to live out the reality of heaven

as a citizen of heaven with other citizens of heaven.

So with the churches.

That's why, and I'm not, okay, I'll say this.

It's not like looking down my nose and like we are the best.

And if people do it differently than us, it's a problem.

But I'll say this.

This is why we've resisted doing online church.

Because the gathering of God's people matters.

It just, it does.

You can't watch something by yourself,

unconnected, without being embodied in a gathering

with other Christians.

You can't watch something and think,

ah, I've attended church.

I'm living here in Ottawa, but I've attended a church in Florida today.

Fantastic.

It's not to say you can't watch sermons online.

Again, I want to kind of have a bit of nuance to this.

And I, you know, if you don't like it, give me a chance to clarify.

But by and large, we have resisted it because the gathering of God's people,

it's a very important thing.

Because we need to see and handshake and maybe hug and converse or comfort each other.

You can't, you can't do that over a Zoom screen.

I think we've seen that over the past five years.

So it's very important that we understand what Paul is saying here

as to live out our citizenship of heaven in a worthy manner together.

It's very, very, very important.

And we do it so that we can stand firm against the competing ideologies

or philosophies that are demanding our allegiance.

In Philippi, it's very clear.

They are to have Rome as their number one allegiance.

That is like, it's beyond anything else.

Rome, that is where number one lies.

If you don't have that allegiance, it's not like Rome is indifferent to you.

It's not like, okay, you know, this group of people in Philippi,

like we're like fourth on their lists in terms of allegiance.

Rome's not happy with that.

Rome needs to be number one.

So what do they do?

They pressure, they compel, they manipulate, they threaten.

If there's any allegiance that is higher than theirs,

we don't have the same thing here.

But we have the same thing here.

We have forces and philosophies and ideals and pseudo-religions and boutique religions

and different goals and visions of the good life

that don't offer an alternative to the faith,

but demand that we have our allegiance with them, with it, whatever it is.

There's an incompatibility with the Christian faith and consumerism,

unlimited consumerism.

There's a problem with that.

It's a competing ideology.

Not all faiths are equal.

Not all faiths are right.

Christianity says there is one way to heaven.

There is one way to God, and it is through Christ.

That is an offensive thing for other philosophies, other religions, other ideals

that that comes in conflict with,

and they will not go down without a fight.

Paul is saying you have no chance to do this by yourself.

You have to do it together.

You have to.

And that's what he's calling the Philippians to here.

Just to close off this section,

it is a high calling.

It's a difficult calling.

And then he says something incredible that seems a bit counter.

We'll put a pin in it until we get to our final section.

But he says this,

if we live this way,

we will be gifted with what?

Growth in our faith and opportunities to suffer.

That's what he promises.

That's the gift.

We'll grow, but we'll also suffer.

But it will be a gift.

Again, this Paul is saying this is a sign of your maturity.

This is a sign of you growing together in the faith

and following God's call on your life.

We'll get to it in a bit.

So stick a pin in that for now.

We'll look at the second section of our opening point,

verses one to four.

And this section focuses on a unity that's expressed in generosity and kindness.

So if the other one was a unity that is characterized by resisting the forces that put pressure

or the forces of individualism,

this is a unity expressed in generosity and kindness.

Look with me at verses one to four.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ and any comfort from love

and any participation in the spirit,

any affection and sympathy,

complete my joy by being of the same mind,

having the same love,

being in full accord and of one mind.

Again, he's reiterating the call to unity there.

Verse three.

Do nothing from selfish ambition 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 interests of others.

There's four dynamics in verse one that Paul says are necessary

for this unity that he's calling the Philippians towards.

And what is interesting here is that,

we won't get into it,

so you have to just trust me,

maybe put a little star down

and we can talk about it at coffee or elsewhere,

but there's Trinitarian overtones.

I mean, it's explicitly referenced to Christ and to the spirit,

but also this affection and sympathy

is surely Paul referencing God,

the father's desire to send the son,

that he has affection and sympathy on the human race,

unable to combat sin and death

and welcoming the human race back into his presence.

Trinitarian overtones in verse one.

Fantastic.

But it's not just that he is kind of tipping his hat at the Trinity,

but he is saying that this is significant.

Why?

Because the unity that Paul is calling the church towards

is not just, again, a nice how do you do thing,

but it's reflective of the unity that we see in the triune God.

That within the Godhead himself,

again, one God, three persons,

the son has always loved the father

and the father has always loved the son.

And they have loved each other in the spirit of the Holy Spirit.

That there's never not been a time where God,

the father,

God,

the son,

God,

the Holy Spirit have been selfish,

but has always been proclaiming their own goodness

and their own love towards each other.

So God creates the entire world,

not out of need,

but as an expression of his love.

What do I mean by that?

Just really quickly,

I've mentioned it in the past.

To love,

to enjoy love means that there has to be an object

that you have to love.

If there was one God with one person,

not one God with three persons,

but one God with one person.

So like, say for instance,

the God of Islam.

To love,

if this God was going to be a God of love,

God would have to create something in order to love it.

Which is to say that,

that God,

that vision of God was lacking something in and of himself or herself or itself.

God would not be complete,

would not be perfect,

would not be whole,

but would be lacking,

would need to do something outside of him or her or itself in order to be complete.

But the God of the Bible has always been three persons.

Always loving each other in a perfect love that is a selfless,

deep expression of God's goodness and his care.

It is an incredible thing to think about.

So then he creates not out of his need,

but as an outpouring of his love.

Love continues to expand.

It continues to stretch and continues to include and,

and,

and bring in.

And this is why God creates.

So right off the bat,

what Paul is saying is that the unity that he's calling us to is,

is a unity that tries to image the Godhead.

How do we do that?

Really tough.

I mean,

if it's tough to think about and to dwell upon,

but this is what he's doing.

The Trinitarian,

uh,

love and unity that God is,

is calling us to also tells us that such a unity,

it is divine.

And what,

what God is calling us to is something that we cannot do ourselves.

How on earth could we image the,

the,

the triune God in broken and sinful flesh?

How,

how do we do that?

So Paul,

he is,

uh,

anticipating,

uh,

what we'll see shortly in the incarnation,

that God will make a way for us to love him and then love each other in such a way that is a,

that appropriately images the Godhead.

verse three and four.

Again,

time out like 30 minutes.

Cut me slack.

If I miss something,

this is heavy.

It's wonderful to meditate on,

but meditate on it.

Verses three and four.

Do not,

uh,

do nothing from selfish ambition.

Again,

this is flowing out of this unity that,

that,

that they're being called to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,

but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his or her own interests,

but also to the interests of others.

Uh,

here's the thing.

We naturally look out for our own interests and needs,

and that's not inherently bad.

And Paul,

by the way,

is not calling us to not care about our own needs.

I mean,

it's,

it's implied that we,

that we do,

but,

but when we focus so much of,

uh,

upon our own needs and our own interests,

we often make excuses for our lack of generosity,

our lack of kindness,

our lack of sacrifice towards others.

Um,

we expand,

uh,

our,

uh,

our non-negotiable needs.

The,

the list gets bigger and bigger so that our time and our energy and our

resources,

I mean,

we only have time for ourselves.

We only have,

uh,

the ability to take care of ourselves.

And in such cases,

unity is always sacrifice.

Care for others and kindness for others.

It is always sacrifice.

And it's problematic because an exclusively self-serving life is not a

robust life.

It is,

it is not a robust life.

Uh,

there was a,

a book that,

uh,

my grade seven teacher,

grade seven or eight teacher read to us.

It was called,

uh,

where the red fern grows.

I don't know if you have heard of this book.

Uh,

it's about a boy and his hunting,

dogs.

It was,

uh,

I don't know.

It's a nice book,

but they were hunting raccoons for their pelts.

And the boy and his grandfather created this,

uh,

trap for the raccoons where they drilled a hole in a log and they put like a

shiny piece of tin or a dime or something that was shiny and then hammered

some nails.

So that only,

um,

the,

the raccoon's hand kind of like,

like squish like this could get through when it would grab the shiny object.

The,

the fist would be too big to pull out.

Okay.

Uh,

but it would never let go of the shiny item and it would be,

it's undoing.

Sometimes we think,

uh,

it is a,

it's a,

it's an app metaphor for us because sometimes we think,

well,

what we need,

we just need a bit more.

We just need a bit more money.

We need a bit more experience.

We,

we need something else that we don't have that surely we can get because there's an

affluence about us.

So we can buy whatever we need.

That is going to tip us over the edge for,

for happiness and joy.

But it is,

it is a fallacy because again,

the life that is exclusively about me will never flourish.

If only I could grab that little shiny piece of tin.

And meanwhile,

our demise is just,

it's on its way.

So Paul is again,

not saying to neglect taking care of ourselves,

but he is saying,

listen,

look after the needs of other people.

Some people actually cannot look after their own needs.

And that is something that people are very ashamed of and quiet about.

You will never know,

but they will suffer in silence.

You can be the very means by which God will bless them.

So Paul is saying,

look to the needs of others.

He encourages us.

What he encourages us to do rather is to apply that same level of concern we have for ourselves

towards our brothers and sisters.

And in our world,

this is a very radical love that we desperately need,

but often find lacking.

And this is where Paul will then appeal to Christ.

Because it is so rare that really it takes the incarnation to really open our eyes to

what this level of humble sacrifice looks like.

So again,

Paul will commend the Philippians to strive for this unified vision,

for this right doctrine leading to right action.

So verse 5 will say this.

Have this mind among yourselves.

So believe this together,

which is yours in Christ Jesus.

It's a bit of a hinge verse

that connects chapter 1,

verse 27 to 2, verse 4.

It hinges that with the Christ hymn of verses 6 to 11.

This grand vision of Christ.

And Paul tells us that to truly understand what unity looks like,

how it's expressed in selfish,

selfless love,

sorry,

we must look to Jesus himself.

We'll get to our second point.

Humility displayed.

I'll read verse 5 to 8.

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 form,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

This section,

it's a very,

there's not much in the New Testament

that gives us this picture of the pre-incarnate Christ,

again,

in the New Testament,

but this is one of them.

And this is,

like I mentioned,

if the Bible is a mountain range,

this is a peak.

It surely is a peak.

It tells us that Jesus always existed.

Again,

that he was always loving the Father,

that in every way he was God.

I mean,

just say that he was in the form of God

might lend to this idea

that he was kind of like God,

but not fully.

But again,

in the original,

what is being communicated is that

Christ is God.

He's God.

Full stop.

Everything about God the Father

applies to God the Son.

He has a quality of nature,

of position,

and status.

And that's important because

when it gets to

the bit here

where it talks about,

well,

I'll read it

in verses six

and forward.

Sorry,

verse seven.

But he emptied himself

by taking on the form of servant.

What that is not saying

is that

God the Son of God

ceased to be God

when he came to earth

and took upon himself

human flesh.

He has to be God all the time.

God the Son of God

has to be God.

In fact,

if he somehow

was able to not be God

because

Hebrews 1 tells us

that all of the world

is held up

by his power,

all of reality

would unravel.

So God the Son of God

is always God,

but what he

empties himself of

specifically

is

his

position

and his status.

This is why

the very thought

that God,

the Son of God

would relinquish that

for a time,

it's outstanding.

Sorry,

yeah,

it's outstanding.

It is really something

that's hard to understand.

that he would relinquish

his nature

and his status.

And why did he do this?

And this is where

I am really not doing it justice

in a short amount of time,

but again,

worth meditating on

and thinking through.

And why did he do this?

So he could take humanity

into himself.

Therefore,

Paul is helping us

peer behind the curtain,

so to speak,

to see what the incarnation

entailed,

to take on the form

of a slave.

God,

the Son of God,

did.

We have servant,

but the word

is slave,

to take on the very

nature of a slave.

So it's not just that

God,

the Son of God,

he suspends

or empties himself

out of his status

and his position

in heaven

to then take on,

say,

maybe God,

the Son of God,

takes on human flesh,

but he becomes the emperor.

He becomes like

the highest position

on earth.

No,

he empties himself

to take on

the status

of a statusless person,

a slave.

Not that Jesus

was a slave,

but he was someone

that was a peasant.

He lived in

a backwater part

of a Roman colony.

He was not

at the pinnacle

of human existence

when he came

on earth.

He emptied himself.

But there's a double

meaning also

with the servanthood

and his slavery

because it's not just

that he took on

the form of a slave,

but he obeyed

the Father's will.

He served the Father's

will perfectly.

And how do we know this?

Well,

look with me

at verse 8.

And being found

in human form,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient

to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

Jesus went all the way.

He suffered humiliation

all the way down,

down,

down

to the very bottom

of human existence.

Okay?

So if you can picture this

and we'll see

how this kind of

then goes back up,

but he goes

from the very height

and there's this descent,

but not just like

two,

three quarters

of the way down

or nine tenths

of the way down.

He goes all the way

to the very bottom

to suffer death,

which is terrible,

to be subject

to the curse,

but to be subject

to the curse of curses,

to be hung on a tree.

Let's consider

how countercultural

this is.

Positions of power

and authority

now and back then,

they've always been

leveraged to gain

further power

and authority.

This can result

in oftentimes

the exploitation

and the neglect

of others.

It's an insatiable

hunger for more

power

and it's

almost never

satisfied

with the acquisition

of more power,

more gold,

more whatever.

Even when we engage

in benevolence

as people with power,

we do it.

Why?

Because we want

to be seen

as benevolent people

so that people

could think of us

in greater ways

and even our benevolence

is just a source

of exploiting

the world

for more power.

But Christ,

he had the highest status.

That means there was

no greater reputation

to earn,

no more greater power

to have,

no more greater kudos

or an additional,

heavier,

bigger crown to wear.

He was at the very height

of reputation

and he gives it up.

This is what it means

when he gives up

his status and position.

He gives it up

and he descends

and descends

and descends

and descends.

He takes on human flesh.

He descends even further

even to death

on the cross.

And he doesn't do it

because God the Father

is coercing him

or we somehow

have twisted his arm.

He empties himself,

the scripture says.

It's voluntary.

And he does it

because of love.

He doesn't,

what does it say

in Hebrews chapter 12?

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

For the joy

that was set before him,

he endured the cross.

He scorned its shame.

He scorned its shame.

I don't want to say

that Jesus didn't care

about the shame,

but he scorned it.

Some of you

that like sports,

you'd remember this.

A guy played in the 80s

and 90s in the NBA.

He was the tallest guy

that ever played

at the time.

His name was Manuk Bol.

He was Dinka

from what is now

South Sudan,

but South Sudan

didn't exist as a country.

It was Sudan.

And he was super tall.

He had a decent career.

I mean,

being that tall,

your body just

falls apart.

And his body

did fall apart.

But what he did

with his millions

is he used it

almost entirely

for aid

for his people.

In South Sudan.

So much so

that he was taking on,

after he retired,

he was taking on

celebrity hockey games.

And you can see

a YouTube video

of him sitting on a bench.

He's like 7'8".

And his knees

are like up to his chin.

And he can barely walk,

let alone skate.

And his former teammates,

they'd say stuff like,

what are you doing?

You're humiliating yourself.

He's like,

I can make more money

for my people.

And in the end,

he dies a young man.

And he dies fairly poor.

But for him,

he says,

who cares?

Like this was his

whole mentality.

Who cares?

I will scorn the shame

and the embarrassment

of going through,

he was in a celebrity

boxing match

and got his face

mashed in.

Like it was,

it was sad.

It really was sad.

But for him,

he's like,

I have this opportunity,

I'm using it.

Manu Bull,

to a smaller extent,

displayed what Christ did

in his incarnation.

Scorn the shame

of his humility

and he did it willingly.

So from glory

to statuslessness

to a Roman crucifix,

we witnessed this descent

from the highest

to the lowest.

But thanks be to God

that Jesus didn't stay there.

But he would then

be exalted

to the highest place.

And I'll read this

and we'll wrap things up

shortly.

Verses 9 to 11,

our last section.

This is glory realized,

our third point.

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.

So if verse 8

was the lowest point

in scripture,

so to speak,

speaking of Christ's

utter humility,

what we are seeing

is the very high point.

This humiliation

for our redemption

after which

the Father

exalted Jesus

to his right hand.

This is an important point.

We're not going to

double click it

all that much.

But he doesn't

exalt

the pre-incarnate

Son of God

to the highest place.

As if

Jesus

God the Son of God

takes on human flesh

he's Jesus

fully man

and fully God

does the whole

redemption thing

and then

after rising

from the grave

says

see you later

meat body

but I'm going

back to heaven.

It doesn't happen

at all.

What happens?

the incarnate

person

of Jesus Christ

fully man

and fully God

he's the one

who is exalted

he's the one

who ascends

he's the one

who sits

on the right hand.

Why is this a big deal?

It's a big deal

because

Jesus doesn't

retreat

after he does

his thing

to the rock cliffs

of the world

or the forest hills

of the world

or the west mounts

of the world

and leaves

us peons

here on earth

but he brings

us with him.

So where Jesus

is we are.

If we are united

to Jesus

by faith

because of what

he has done

this is by the way

a gift of God

that we don't have

to suffer

the just wrath

of God

but instead

we get glory

this is called

the grace of God

because of all

of this

we are united

to him

and he says

where I go

you will go.

It's huge.

It's huge

because it

absolutely defangs

death

and death

is very difficult

and it's hard

I don't want to say

you know

a loved one passing

well it doesn't matter

it matters

getting a diagnosis

it matters

it's

these things

they still hurt

but they are

they are

totally defanged

so that

the best

that our

most

arch enemy

can do to us

is kill our body

but never our soul

never our soul

that changes

the way we live

it changes

the way the Philippians

will live

because

they are not worried

as much

about Nero

but rather

they see the glory

of Christ

Paul himself

right

in the previous section

he is sacrificing

not his life

but his death

for the Philippians

like that

that is a change

that only happens

if there's a promise

that you will

ascend with Christ

once you die

in the resurrection

that is a promise

that is eternal life

it also

means

that we

have power

heavenly power

here on earth

by virtue of our prayers

and trust that

the Holy Spirit

is active

and at work

in our lives

we can tell people

when we pray for them

that I am praying to God

and he hears my prayers

and he knows me

you know somebody

in your life

who seems to have

a guy for everything

yeah I have a mechanic

I have a floor guy

I have a drywall guy

it's like he has a guy

for everything

you have a guy

you have a guy in heaven

like you

I have a guy

he hears my prayers

and by the way

he created everything

and he's all powerful

and it's a

it's a really remarkable thing

if we think about this

and dwell upon it

and live out this reality

it is remarkable

and it's all because

Christ humbly served

uniting us to himself

through his gracious incarnation

!

through his suffering

through his death

through his resurrection

his ascension

and his enthronement

friends

if your faith is in him

you are with him

forever

this is why

the disunity

a church that is

that is disunited

and stingy

and uncaring

is not just a problem

but it's an affront

it's an affront

to the incarnation

even in his enthronement

with the name

above all names

Jesus

what does he do?

he glorifies the father

verse 11

I'll just finish with this

in a world that is

rife with disunity

factionalism

war

conflict

an inability

to disagree well

where selfishness

and exploitation

are the norm

friends

let us live

worthy lives

lives that are worthy

of our citizenship

in heaven

again

not perfectly

but let us

let us grow in that

let us walk towards it

let us faithfully

imitate our savior

let him

let us ask him

for strength

to grow

in this love

in this selflessness

towards each other

all as a response

to what Christ

has done for us

let's pray

father thank you

for

your blessed son

lord we thank you

that

he never

was not

God

the son of God

but he surely

emptied himself

of his status

and position

and lord we thank you

that he is enthroned

in heaven

as Jesus Christ

fully man

fully God

what a promise

to us

for our eternal

future

lord

if we don't

value that

help us to value it

if we see that

as not

something that is

glorious

lord change our

hearts

help us

to see this

world

in grayscale

compared to

this reality

lord we ask

that you

will do that

by your

spirit

in our hearts

we pray this

in Christ's name

amen

and

and

and