Dennis Tuuri

# Jesus’ Exaltation and Ours

Today is the fourth and final sermon in this series on Philippians 2:5-11. And we’ll focus on the last portion of what many commentators, I would say most, have said is a song, a hymn of praise that we’re dealing with in this text, perhaps part of the early liturgy of the church. And we’ll deal with the last portion of that where we’ll move from Christ’s humiliation to his exaltation. But I wanted to kind of round out the series of four.

On the front of your orders of worship, there are four panels that relate to these four sermons. And so I’ll read the entire text and actually review some of the earlier sermons as we then focus on the last section today. So please stand for the reading of God’s word. Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 11.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, being 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. 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.

Let’s pray. Father, we ask that you would glorify yourself now through our understanding of this text. May your Holy Spirit, given to us on the basis of this incarnate second person, the Lord Jesus Christ—may that Holy Spirit open our eyes and our hearts to understand your word and, more than that, to be transformed by it so that we might indeed have the mindset, have the consideration, have the thoughts in mind of our Lord Jesus Christ as we walk into this joyous season. Bless, Lord God, the preaching of your word to the end that it would bring glory to you. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated. It was such a delight walking up before Sunday school and hearing the music being played on the porch outside here. My only sadness at that was my wife wasn’t with me. She’s sick today—she’s got the flu. She would have loved to have seen that and heard it. It’s a—the Lord has given her a real desire to see this church make itself manifest in our community in ways we haven’t thought of yet. She would have just loved the music coming forth so that our neighbors can hear the joyous tone of Christmas and its true meaning. That was why she, you know, got the nativity set going outside—an idea that we have to be better. I know we do some things, but we’ve got to be better at trumpeting forth the tremendous news that our text today contains in kind of a summary form.

Last night, I was engaged frantically in one of the annual liturgies of getting ready—Christmas cards for all of you and others. And I was scribbling. That is the right word. I was scribbling notes in these cards. I would like to blame that on my poor vision. However, I have always scribbled. I’ve never been able to read my own writing. So I think it’s probably worse now, but not much. And I apologize to you ahead of time—you’re going to have to try to decipher it, and don’t ask me because I can’t read it either.

But it was a touching moment—or actually, a touching hour of moments—as I wrote out messages because with every card with your name on it on the envelope, you know, I thought of you, your family, and it was just—I was overwhelmed by a feeling of great gratitude to the Lord God for serving in the context of such a committed group of people. You know, we live in difficult times, right? We live in times where the faith, at least in its outward manifestation, seems to be disappearing from our country, at least, and tremendous changes in our lives. But in the midst of all of that, for nearly three decades, some of you have been part of what we’re doing here, and many of you have come forth from those original families, and others have joined along the path. And I know that pastor—I think it’s sort of a weird gig. You know, usually you’re sort of working with the management-by-exception principle at play. You’re spending a lot of time with people who are struggling or having difficulties and trying to manage the things that always go wrong. And it’s important, and one of the liturgies of Christmas card writing is to sum up your thoughts about people who you haven’t had to deal with a lot of those things typically.

And there’s so much work, service to Jesus that’s represented by the people in this room. It is astonishing—the amount of light, kingdom light, that has gone into this world through the people brought together in this little church. And then to think of the implications of that for the world—that the body of Christ is alive and well, doing all kinds of things, many of them small and unnoticed by most, but significant faith things. And the Lord has blessed that. And I’m not talking just about your service here, although I am talking about that. It’s been just a delight and a privilege to know every one of you. And that little ritual, you know, liturgy of Christmas cards, can be such a wonderful thing for us.

What I’m going to say in today’s sermon, you know, you pretty well know. You’ve known it for a long time. I’m not really telling you a whole lot that’s new—maybe some new stuff about particular things going on in these verses—but you understand this. You know, Paul’s writing to a group of people who need to hear the need to serve one another. And you all have done that faithfully for many, many years. And what a delight. The Christmas play again this year almost didn’t happen, and then what happens? A young person, a young girl, volunteers and does it. And then we watch, you know, now the second generation in many of these cases of kids who are—whose parents and even grandparents are here at this church. And so the fruit of all your service and commitment to Christ is certainly seen in that—a multigenerational faithfulness of children, for the most part, in the context of this body. And that is tremendous fruit. What better, what more joy can John say we can have than knowing that our children walk in the faith? And not just walk in the faith but are so committed, as the young people are in this church. So, you know, this is a delightful season, and the text today is a summation of the gospel, really. And you know that gospel. So I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. But I wanted to re-emphasize an understanding of these texts.

You know, this is a text that’s typically used as an Advent text because many people think it’s about Jesus taking—it’s about the incarnation itself, proper. And if you’ve been here the last three weeks, you know that I believe that actually what it’s about is the purpose of the incarnation. It’s certainly God at the center of it—the incarnation of Jesus in his incarnate work. But this is a text that’s begun by this very important verse that says, “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Jesus is his name given to him after his incarnation. It’s his name of the incarnated Son of God. It refers to his humanity, really. And so this is the mindset we’re supposed to have. It isn’t—it is about the second person of the Trinity taking on human flesh to accomplish salvation for us. But it’s not urging you to have that mindset, although he certainly is exhibiting the mindset of God himself in this. But, you know, you can relate to it because he’s talking about Jesus, and you can have this mindset of what Jesus did when he had a body much like your body and what he did in that body in terms of service. And so that, I think, is an important introduction to the text. Verse 5 is important for us.

And the text then is—I’ve addressed it in four particular sections. And that first section really—what we tried to stress several times now in this series—is a proper, a godly mimesis, or imitation of others. Just before the service started, somehow I flashed on a man that I’ve worked with, mostly in political action, for 20, 25 years, and I sort of felt like him for a moment, and that’s okay. We inhabit each other’s lives, and that’s a good thing. That’s who God made you to be. You’re supposed to have other people’s mindsets, their actions. Now, there’s you there too, somehow, but you are found in imitation. And whether that’s a good or a bad thing depends on who you’re imitating.

And Adam’s sin was he imitated the rivalry that was presented to him by Satan, and he threw the human race into a negative mimesis, a negative imitation. And this text begins by telling us to have proper role models—we could say proper people that we are to imitate and surround ourselves by. Now, we’re to minister to people outside of the body of Christ, to this neighborhood, to the world. But there’s a distinction made, and we’re also warned in scriptures not to be close friends, you know, with people who are ungodly because you’ll become like them, right? And so the text begins by telling us the importance of positive mimesis—that Jesus came so that we might have this attitude in us.

Now, on the front of the order of worship, the panel we’ve used to represent that is this footwashing idea. And you know, the footwashing ceremony is been frequently related to by commentators on this particular text, and that can be good or bad. But I think that for us, the footwashing, of course, happens immediately before in the immediate context of the stripping of Jesus. He strips himself to serve his disciples by washing. And this is a little prefigurement, I think, of what will happen after Jesus’s arrest. He’ll be stripped again, and he will do his great act of service. That is the focal point of the incarnate savior for us in Philippians 2:6-11—that work, the focal point is his death on the cross for us. And in preparation for that kind of service, Jesus will once more be stripped. And so the attitude is one of serving other people, even when necessary, to the point of death.

Now, Jesus’s role was distinct and unique. You don’t imitate being the savior of the world. But you do imitate his service, his washing of the disciples’ feet, and his putting aside—you know, what might other people might think of his glory, the robes that aren’t kind of glory to us in the act of serving other people, even if necessary. And for him it was to the point of death. And for him it was death on a cross, bearing the curse of his sheep.

Augustus Toplady is a great English Calvinist of the 18th century who battled strongly against Arminianism—or you could say against the idea that God is not fully sovereign in the salvation of mankind. Strong English Calvinist, he gave us several number of excellent hymns that we—a couple of them we sing. “Rock of Ages” and “A Debtor to Mercy Alone.” “Rock of Ages,” though, comes to mind as we think of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. And when he’s pierced, through blood and water comes out of his side, and Toplady wrote about this in “Rock of Ages,” verse one: “Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save me from its guilt and power.” And then in verse three: “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die.” And so Toplady brings in this imagery of the Lord Jesus providing that definitive washing of our sins through the blood and water that gushes forth from his riven side. And so the footwashing of the savior is a good picture to remind us of what this text is telling us at the very beginning: have this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus—service to other people, not putting yourself first but others first.

The second panel is about the reversal of the Fall—to put off impatient grasping. And that’s such a wonderful picture. Angie found on the Internet that kind of crazed grasping for the apple on the front of the order of worship in the panel on the right. That was what we looked at next in the text: that Jesus’s mindset was not to grasp after equality with God. Now, that equality with God is the subject of his exaltation. He’ll become equal with God in the sense that he reigns at the right hand of the Father—that humankind now is brought into rule and authority. And that, I think, is what this phrase “equality with God” means. Jesus didn’t grasp for that. And that’s deliberate language bringing us back to Adam, who did grasp, and Eve who did grasp for that, impatiently, believing the lie, entering into rivalry with God, and seeing that rivalry as necessitating them going for the gusto themselves, autonomously, and without waiting for God to lead them into maturity and rule and reign.

And so the text goes on to tell us that the thing we’re to imitate primarily is this mindset of not being a grasper—to put off the Adamic sin. Jesus’s humiliation and service here are not exceptions to this because it doesn’t say, “In spite of being in the form of God.” It says, “Being in the form of God”—precisely because Jesus is God, he does not grasp. He submits to the Father and accomplishes our salvation in the right time and achieves for mankind rule and authority in the cosmos correctly.

Now, this is quite important. What difference does it make if it’s “in spite of him being God” or “because he’s God”? Because our view of God determines how we’ll be. It determines who we are. Psalm 115:8 says—talks about idols and in the New American Standard Version, “Those who make these idols will become like them. Everyone who trusts them.” ESV version: “Those who make these idols become like them, and so do all who trust in them.” You see, whatever you perceive as God, right—what you worship, what you trust in—you become like that thing. Okay? You become like the God you serve. And if the God you serve is, as in Islam, a God of pure power, and whose way of accomplishing all his will in the world is pure power and selfishness and self-glory, well, that’s how you’re going to be. And you’re going to treat other people very poorly because of that.

Our God is a God who comes to serve, to not grasp for equality, to not seek his own well-being. Our God exists in three persons, perpetually serving one another in relationship. That’s who our God is. And as we come before him every Lord’s day, as we come before the God of the scriptures, that God, then we become like him. You understand? Precisely because Jesus is in the form of God, he isn’t like Adam. And if we worship God as presented in the scriptures and as seen in the work of Jesus Christ going to the cross for us, then we become like that God. We become, then, servant-minded. We begin to have the proper consideration of what we are to do.

So that was the second panel. The third panel is, you know, well, what does he do? He puts off Adamic grasping. And what he puts on then is a particular kind of humiliation that is directly linked to his becoming cursed on our behalf on the cross. If you look on your handouts, we’re at point number three now. And I didn’t explain this last week—this little structure I gave you—but I want to do that now. I think at the center of these verses, verses 7 and 8, is the humanity of Jesus. He’s born in the likeness of man and being found in human form. A double witness to the fact that he’s human, okay. What does it mean? So we observe not the eternal person of God in eternity. We observe Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of God incarnate in Jesus. And we observe him in his humanity. And we’re to have that humanity become our humanity, not the old humanity. And so the humanity of Jesus is stressed at the middle.

So the incarnation is important. This is a good Christmas text. But what’s really happening here is that the emptying of himself—he empties himself, right? He empties himself. He pours out his soul. It matches up on your outline there, the way I see it at least, is by becoming obedient to the point of death. He pours out, like the servant in Isaiah 53, his soul for his people. He goes to death, even the death of the cross. And that matches with the “but.” He isn’t like Adam. Instead, he serves, and he serves to the point of not just dying a criminal’s death—a very painful death, all that stuff. He dies accepting on a cross. And the Bible tells us that whoever hangs on a tree is cursed. Jesus takes upon himself our curse. That’s the “but” match. He’s not like Adam. He’s like the second Adam who not just dies for his bride, takes upon her—curse upon himself. That’s what the second Adam did. And in his humanity then, what’s really stressed is his humiliation—not about taking on human flesh. His humiliation rather of dying on the cross, accepting the curse of his people.

And so this is a model to us, right? We have to serve in like ways. We have to have that particular mindset of serving and, if necessary, pouring out our lives for other people. And as I said, this church is filled with all kinds of acts—every day, people are doing here self-sacrificially for others. And it is a joy and a privilege to serve in that context.

Now, on the third panel, what I’ve got there is a reference that I didn’t really talk about last week either. And again, this is on your handouts. But before we get to that, I wanted to mention that Jesus is suffering—and suffering. Okay? So they’re to serve, and sometimes, and frequently, that service may involve suffering. And Jesus’s death on the cross is a picture of that suffering. Now, Philippians—I’ve given you a handout on your handout an overall outline of it. I’ve given this to you before. I give it to you now to remind us what’s going on. We’re looking at the center of an epistle—not a long but an epistle. And at the center, it is telling us things about what’s going on in the rest of it.

Now, before and after this center, Paul talks about serving one another, having this mind in you, putting other people first, all that stuff that’s on either side of this text. And then on either side of those things—in the D section rather, in the E section—are the plan. So do you see on your handout? Let’s look at those. So the G section’s the center. So that’s what we’ve been talking about in these verses. Either side is unity and their conduct and their walk and helping each other. Those are the F sections. Either side of that are the E sections. Paul has specific plans, and the word “plan” is used in both these sections and only in those sections. That’s why it’s in bold there. And what’s important here—that I’m reason I’m pointing about this outline—is the D and the D prime sections.

Now, we know Philippians is the epistle of joy, right? Joy is what it’s about. But what we sometimes forget is the context for that joy in the structure of the letter is suffering. It’s joy and suffering that Paul is particularly talking about in both the D and the D prime sections. The suffering is the context for his joy. Uh, let me just read a little bit from those matching sections directly from the text itself. In Philippians 1:14, he says: “Most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” So he’s referencing his imprisonment in this particular section. Then in verse 16, he says there’s different people preaching Jesus for different reasons. The ones that are—the latter—do it out of love, “knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. But the others do it out of spite.” So there are people preaching the gospel to spite Paul and to hurt Paul, to make him suffer. And he is suffering. He’s in prison. But verse 18 says this: “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice.” So Paul tells us in chapter 1 in that beginning joy section that the joy is in the context of suffering.

The joy is in the context of suffering. So, you know, maybe you know we could have people put up a nativity set and they’re really doing it for the completely wrong reasons. But Paul says, hey, even though they’re enemies who are trying to do me damage, I’m going to rejoice in my suffering. The matching section says the same thing. We’re very used to looking at Philippians 4, and you know it says in verse 1: “Rejoice in the Lord.” Verse 4 rather: “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.” And then it says in verse 6: “Don’t be anxious about anything. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God will be with you.” So again, in the matching section here, the joy is specifically in the midst of difficulties, trials and tribulations—suffering, in other words.

So when Paul tells us to be joyous, it’s immediately in the context of suffering. And now—now what we—what I want. So the point is: last week’s sermon was a little incomplete. Serve, yes, but understand that service will often involve—often involve—suffering. The epistle is given to people who are suffering in various ways. And this church, like every church, has people in it that are suffering. There’s a lot of physical suffering going on in this church. There’s some emotional suffering. There’s vocational suffering. There’s all kinds of suffering that happens. I mean, it’s amazing, you know, if you just begin to think through people at church, as much as you’ll find yourself grateful for their service to Christ, you’ll also find yourself beginning to pray for them because of the suffering that they’re going through—most of them.

So there’s a great deal of suffering happening now. Here’s the point: Jesus is an example. Have this mindset. Even in the midst of suffering, know that your suffering will yield to exaltation. That’s what we’re going to get to in the fourth section here in a moment. That the suffering is not perpetual. The suffering will yield to exaltation. The suffering will yield to the blessings of God, even in the midst of the suffering, at times.

Now, this is why, on your text—again, on your handouts—I hope this isn’t too confusing—but the Luke text about Jesus in the garden. Okay. And so if you look at your text, if your handout again, and now we’re talking about the text in Luke about Jesus’s prayer in the garden. And what we see in this text is a little structure again where he goes to the garden and then he’s in the garden at the end. And so we have these matching statements that bring us to a particular center.

And interestingly, in verses 42 and 44, in verse 42, he says, “Remove this cup from me, but not my will be done, but yours.” So Jesus is aware of the suffering that’s going to happen on the cross. And he’s engaging that for us now. And it’s not pleasant. It’s going to be tremendously painful—taking upon himself the curses of you and I and the separation from God that the Father—that will occur. So, “Take this cup from me.” And then in verse 44, it says: “Being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Again, a prefigurement of the blood that will gush out of his side at his crucifixion. So suffering is what’s happening in the garden as a prefigurement for what will happen on the cross. So we have these prefigurements: service to the apostles or to the disciples, and then the prefigurement of suffering. And that suffering service is what Philippians 2 is all about.

Okay? And the reason I point this out: because notice the center then of this little structure in Luke’s gospel about Jesus in the garden. What’s in between those two things that describe the tremendous suffering of Jesus? What’s in between is verse 43: “There appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.” Strengthening the second person of the Trinity. What’s happening here? Well, many of these things are too hard to imagine. They’re too hard to explain. They’re beyond us. But I think what particularly this verse is telling us is that Jesus in his humanity has tremendous suffering, and it will be even more on the cross. And he knows it. And in the midst of his suffering, in his incarnate humanity, an angel from heaven—God the Father sends an angel from heaven to strengthen him. Philippians is about the humanity of Jesus, a humanity that we can identify with. And the suffering of Jesus is described for us to say that, hey, you’re going to suffer, too. And we’re to remember that God will come and strengthen you in your sufferings. Your physical torment will end at a particular place, whether it’s with death or healing, if you’re suffering in that way. Whatever we’re suffering will terminate in exultation. That’s what the text will go on to tell us. But it doesn’t just give us the promise of future hope. As wonderful as that is, when we look at what Luke tells us about the suffering of the Savior that we’re to emulate in Philippians 2, we find that God ministers to him. In the midst of that suffering, an angel comes. The very center of that narrative is about the coming of an angel to strengthen him.

Brothers and sisters, you got to get low to deal with problems, right? There’s a movie this last year, one of my favorite movies, “Get Low” with Robert Duvall. It’s a reference to dying, an old southern expression or something to dying. And as I do my leaves, funny things happen to me as I’m blowing and raking and doing things and working in the yard. And I start singing, and, you know, I’m thinking about the sermon and I’m thinking about getting low. And I’m thinking: you got to get low, brothers and sisters. You got to get low to deal with sin. You got to get low to deal with death. You got to get low to save the world. Jesus had to get low, and he did. This is after I saw the gospel Christmas concert. So I’m not very good at it. You know, that’s that parakalesis stuff, right? Don’t be afraid to do that around your house or outside. I did this when I was young, too, by the way. It’s not just because I’m old. I do the same thing. We inhabit each other. And, you know, the point is, that’s what the text is about.

Jesus had to get low. He had to suffer death on the cross for us to redeem us. And God says that for whatever reason, you have to get low in your sufferings. That’s God’s means to do particular things in your life. Whether it’s serving other people as they watch you suffer, whether it’s getting rid of some particular sin, whether it’s more identification with the Savior and his—whatever it is, God says you got to get low in suffering like the Savior. And you got to have his mindset when you go through that suffering. And you’ve got to know that the next few verses, if I ever get to them, are verses that will are true—not just of him, but they’re true in some fashion of you as well.

So number four: God will graciously exalt you. God, in these last verses then that we have to deal with—let’s go through them. “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.”

Now, that is the wonderful, great—if it is a hymn—concluding, you know, part of this hymn. That’s the least the part where if we’re going to have musical instruments, and they would blow him at that point, I’m sure, because this is the great crescendo. Jesus has been gone to the depths. He’s gone to the depths in his suffering. He’s gone to death on the cross. And then God—then we go up the hill the other way. And God highly exalts him. And you know, we’ll talk about this in a minute in terms of Jesus and what it means. But brothers and sisters, understand: this is given to you. The verse, the section, is introduced by saying, “Have this mind in you.” Jesus understood the faithfulness of the Father. Have that mindset. Jesus knew—the scriptures say, from the beginning to end—no pain, no gain. You know, no cross, no crown. You’re suffering, maybe. I know a lot of you are, or you will—know of a certainty—that your suffering will yield to exaltation. That’s the way it works in the scriptures. Beginning again. So we’ll talk about it in terms of Jesus here, and we’ll talk about the details. But I don’t want to miss the fact—as we run out of time again—that this is about you and me and about our attitude and what we do in life. And God wants you to know that Jesus Christ, whom you’re in union and communion with, right? You’re in union with Jesus. If you suffer with him, you’ll live with him. If you die with him, you’ll resurrect with him. And I don’t mean just eternally, although that’s important, too. God will frequently in this life exalt you as you humble yourself under his hand and as he calls you to serve and if necessary suffer. So this isn’t just about Jesus. It’s about Jesus—precisely, I should say. It’s not just about the second person of the Trinity. It’s about Jesus because Jesus refers to his humanity, and that’s what we are to identify with in the context of our lives. Okay.

Let’s talk a little bit about the details then of this particular section. So, first of all, verse 9: the “therefore.” It isn’t just “therefore.” It’s not just one “therefore.” It’s two words together. So the idea is “therefore” because of what I just said. So it’s a double witness to the truth of the exaltation that inevitably follows suffering in the context of the Bible. So you have two conjunctions together affirming what Jesus taught himself in the gospels—that the divine order of things is self-humiliation leading inevitably to exaltation. So the “therefore” is a double conjunction, and it really stresses the importance of that truth. You know, Jesus said, “Those who want to save their life will lose it. Those who want to lose their life will find it. What will it profit then if they gain the whole world and yet forfeit their life?” Jesus said, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted,” right? That’s what our Savior says. And that’s what’s going on here. The “therefore” means it is inevitable that after such humiliation we would see such tremendous exultation, such tremendous raising up of the Lord Jesus. Again, in Matthew 18: “Whoever becomes humble like a child will be greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” So God says, look, it’s inevitable—like a little conjunction there, the little “therefore”—you know, has a powerful message. It says, “Well, of course, then this is what’s going to happen.” “Therefore, therefore, God has highly exalted him. He has uber-exalted him. He has super-exalted him. It’s a word that’s comprised of two words to exalt something, but then to super-exalt something as well.

And so the super-exaltation of Jesus—Psalm 97:9: “You, oh Lord, are most high over all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods, all powers.” And so this is what God does for Jesus. This happens in the resurrection, ascension, right? He dies on the cross, he’s buried, and then he resurrects and he ascends to the right hand of the Father. He is super-exalted by God. Now look, this isn’t Jesus doing it to himself, right? This is God the Father doing this for Jesus. And if you want to, you know, if you identify with Jesus, you’ll be looking for the Father to exalt you—not to super-exalt you, but in a way you are with Christ—but to bring you out of your suffering into a position of exaltation as his purposes for that come to an end. So, so Jesus is now passive. Jesus was active in the preceding section. He’s now the passive recipient of God’s work. “God highly exalts him.” And then we read that he “bestows on him.” Before we get to the name, this is important. That word “bestow”—it’s a form of “charis.” Eucharist, with grace. “Charis” is grace. It’s, you know, unmerited favor. It’s a blessing. “Charis,” right? So that’s what this is about. So “bestowed” isn’t a very good translation. A better translation would be that the Father, God, has graciously bestowed on Jesus.

Now, what’s the significance of that? Think about it. Got a lot of significance, doesn’t it? It takes merit out of the equation, at least in terms of what this hymn is saying. It says that God is graciously exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. What’s in mind in this text is not some sort of—you know, thing where Jesus earns something. It’s Jesus obeying the Father and trusting the Father, and the Father then responding in grace, exalting the Son. Now can you identify with that one? Yeah. If it had said, well, he then gave Jesus what he was owed—what good does that do you? What good would that do you? Because our works are never perfect. There’s always sin mixed in with them. And if we have to wait around in our suffering for God to give us what we deserve, we’re in big trouble. Amen? Yeah, we are. And so this is language that’s chosen to strengthen the Philippians and to strengthen you. It’s telling us wonderful things about Jesus, but it’s telling us things that are tremendous encouragement to us—that God will graciously bestow on us something as well in Christ. What does he graciously bestow on Jesus? A name which is above every name. Well, what is that? You know, what is that name above every name? Well, Jesus—at the name of Jesus. At the name of Jesus. But I thought he already had that name. He did already have that name, didn’t he? Yeah, he did. Well, what’s the trouble here?

Well, the trouble is, number one, that probably isn’t the name. When we get to the end of the text, by the end of verse 11, what we’re now given is the title of Jesus: “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Lord. So many commentators—there’s a number of commentators that think that the name—so it doesn’t mean the name “Jesus.” It’s the name given to Jesus, the name of Jesus that he fits as a result of the Father graciously bestowing it on him. Do you understand the difference? We’re always used to thinking “at the name of Jesus”—that is the name. But, you know, grammatically you can’t demonstrate that. Grammatically, it can be that it’s the name given to Jesus. It’s his name. It’s Jesus’s name that he’s given in his exaltation, right? And that name seems to be certainly at least linked to, if not specifically identified with, “Lord”—at least linked to the idea of lordship.

Now, the name isn’t some sort of just name. It confers upon Jesus what the name says. And Jesus—we can say the scriptures say—becomes Lord, right? What does Psalm 2 say? “Ask of me, and I’ll give you the heathen as your inheritance.” Now, the second person of the Trinity is God. He’s always ruled over everything. So what’s different about this is Jesus bringing humanity into rule and reign. This is what Adam was eventually going to get to do: discern good and evil, rule and reign in the world and in the cosmos. And Jesus has now accomplished that for humanity. And Jesus then is given this new—we could say—title of “Lord.” And that’s an ascension event, right? We talked about that last Ascension Sunday that God has conferred upon Jesus in an act of grace this name and title that indicates that humanity has now moved to rule and reign at the right hand of the Father.

A related text—and, oh, let’s go on to verse 10. So that, “in,” or “by,” is another way to translate the preposition there. “The name of Jesus, every knee should bow.” So again, this has to do with the name. Verse 11 says that “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” So the purpose is given to us here. Why did God super-exalt him? So that two things might happen: that he’d have a name that every knee should bow to, and that every tongue would confess—that’s the second side of that. That’s the second part of what God is accomplishing. And that confession is that “Jesus Christ is Lord”—is Lord. So it seems from that, likely, that “Lord” is this name that is being referred to—that Jesus is given a name that every knee will bow to and every tongue will confess. Now, you can’t really split off “Lord” and “Jesus Christ”—that basic confession of the church: “Jesus Christ is Lord.” That’s the basic confession. If you’re a Christian, that’s your basic confession. And all those things are gathered together in really the name or title of the “Lord Jesus Christ.” But what seems to be added is “Lord.”

Now, in Acts 2:36, day of Pentecost, right? And these guys are preaching. And here’s what they say: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him”—and he’s already talked about Jesus, the historical Jesus—”God has made him, Jesus, both Lord and Christ. This Jesus whom you crucified.” So at the ascension, which is pictured on the day of Pentecost, right, the results of it—Peter says that Jesus has been made Lord and Christ. Now, so that being made Lord—that exultation, not just the resurrection but the ascension of Jesus—seems to be tied directly to the title of “Lord” in Christ in Acts 2:36. So God gives Jesus a name above every name. God gives Jesus equality with him, now ruling at his right hand. Now, he’s lord over not just a small part but over the entire cosmos. Now he is lord over the entire cosmos, and he has this new name. It’s interesting that I won’t take the time to read it, but in Revelation 2:17 and 3:12, you know, there’s a new name for us as well, and we’re identified with this newness of name that Jesus is a recipient of.

And then we read that every knee should bow to Jesus in heaven and on earth and under the earth. I won’t talk more about that. It’s just a comprehensive term. Some people have said it refers to angels, men, and demons. Well, I don’t know. But the point of this is he is comprehensive ruler and lord over all the created order.

Now, now this is something that informs these verses as well. Isaiah 45:22 and 23: “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am Lord, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone out in righteousness, a word that shall not return. To me, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.” Now, those are the two purposes that we just read in Philippians 2 of the super-exultation, the gracious super-exultation of Jesus. The two purposes are those two purposes: that every knee should bow and every tongue confess. And Isaiah 45 helps us to tie this text in Philippians back to a prophetic word. And that prophetic word is describing the salvation of all the ends of the earth. It’s a postmillennial verse. It says that God will accomplish the salvation of all the ends of the earth. And it seems to me, at least, that comprehensively, the time is coming and history inevitably, inexorably moves forward in the Father’s gracious bestow to the Son—a title that is worked out in history. Then the world is moving inevitably to the exaltation of Jesus, to a time when every knee does indeed bow on the entire face of the earth.

That’s what Isaiah 45 says. Now, maybe it means more than that, but the text at least means that all the ends of the earth become saved. And it seems that every knee and every tongue—while tongue can refer to a people group—it seems that it’s pretty comprehensive in terms not just of groups of people but every individual as well—is brought into this salvation.

Verse 11 concludes this: “Every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Now, this is wonderful. At the beginning of this section, it talked about Jesus existing in the form of God. And at the end of the section, it says that all of the exaltation of Jesus, the second person, the Son of God, is for the purpose of the glory of God the Father. Now, remember the Adamic imagery. Adam turned against Father. He was the son of God. The Bible tells us that he turned against him. He saw God. He believed that God was a rival to him, and he couldn’t trust God. He couldn’t trust God just not to eat a fruit. Maybe even just for a little while. We don’t know. But he couldn’t trust him that far.

Now, Jesus is the perfect Son. And he shows us the character of the Father. And he shows us his trust for the Father—not just in restraining from not grabbing, but in obeying the Father’s will: “Not my will, but your will be done.” To die a criminal’s death, a torturous death, completely, you know, completely innocent of whatever he was accused of. And not just that, but taking upon himself the curse due to you for your sins. That’s how much Jesus trusted the Father. That’s how far from his mind was the idea that the Father was a rival to him. Our Adamic nature sees God as a rival. We find things to be upset about because we think God’s our rival.

And this text, the great culmination, is the reconciliation of God the Father and humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. It’s humanity being brought back to a proper understanding of the Father, that he loves us, that he graciously bestows on Jesus. He graciously bestows upon us salvation but also ruling authority. Revelation says: “To him who overcomes, I’ll give the rod and dominion over the nations.” This isn’t just about Jesus’s exaltation. The ascension is about—is the—about the ascension of humanity to sit at the right hand of God the way that Adam was intended to eventually become Lord of the cosmos. Jesus is that Lord, and us in him are given dominion and rule.

It works out in funny ways, this dominion and rule thing, not in ways we think of because we always think in Adamic ways of power. That’s what we’re tempted to do. We don’t look very powerful. But I’m telling you, last night, writing those Christmas cards, I was amazed at the power of God using simple people—which we all are—doing simple acts of faithfulness and perseverance, in some of us for decades, and to then see the fruit in what God is doing. He’s populating the earth with more and more faithful Christians, to the glory of God the Father. We leave the Father out a lot, don’t we? We’re always talking about Jesus. But this text concludes with glory being given to the Father. And we know that at the final coming, Jesus returns all authority to the Father. He gives everything back to the Father. Tremendous. And God says that’s the way it works.

You people are the demonstration that this text is true. You suffer, but you suffer as Christians and you process it as Christians, and you remain faithful to Jesus. You don’t stop serving Jesus in your suffering. You keep going—sinfully, no doubt. And God graciously has bestowed upon you blessing after blessing. I know that in my life, last night, you do it. You look at your Christmas cards, you hand out, you look people in the face today, and tell me that your life hasn’t been filled with the grace of God and blessings from God to you because of your union with Christ. Tell me that he hasn’t exalted you—graciously bestowing upon you the ability to learn from people, to have people serve you, and you to serve them, and then to grow together in influence over more and more people, and more and more relationships being built, more and more simple acts of service creating the body of Christ as a separate, a new city arising in the city of Oregon City—not just in this church but the other churches as well.

Of course, God says that: have this mind in you because as you trust the Father not to be your rival but to be graciously bestowing upon you first the suffering and then the exaltation, and then ruling in strange ways—not ways that you know, you’re going to beat people over the head—but ruling through the proclamation of the truth of God’s word that all men would hear the call to worship Jesus and, through that, to bring glory to the Father. A wonderful text, a wonderful text, and a very significant text for our lives as we walk them out and live them in the context of the world that God has given to us.

Praise God that he is reconciled Father and the world—Father and Son—and we can trust him and love him. That’s the beauty. That’s the joy of Christmas. When we give gifts, it’s not about deserts. It’s not about what you deserve. It’s about grace. Receive gifts graciously this year. Don’t compare to other people. Don’t think—what did they give me—in terms of when you give gifts to others. Grace is what Christmas giving is all about. Graciously bestow to one another. And when you do it, think of the other people that you’re giving gifts to and that you receive gifts or cards or notices from. And thank God that what happened 2,000 years ago is affecting the world in your lifetime, in your ways, strange ways, but powerful ways as well. And commit yourselves afresh to serve the Savior. That’s the beauty of this Advent text—Philippians 2:5-11.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you. We bless your holy name for the tremendous grace that is demonstrated in this text, for the obedience of our Savior, and we thank you, Lord God, that we’re to have this mindset in our minds as well—that we’re to serve, if necessary suffering. We’re not to imitate bad people and their desires, but we’re to imitate godly people, serve, suffering if need be, trusting you to exalt us in due time and to use our service in the lives of others for the purposes of the kingdom, that you, holy Father, might bring glory to yourself. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth, thou art;
Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.

Joy to those who long to see the Dayspring from on high appear.
Come, thou promised Rod of Jesse, of thy birth we long to hear.
Over the hills the angels singing, news—glad tidings of a birth.
Go, tell it on the mountains, bringing Christ the Lord to earth.

Come to earth to taste our sadness, he whose glories knew no end.
By his life he brings us gladness, our Redeemer, Shepherd, Friend.
Leaving riches without number, born within a cattle stall,
This the everlasting wonder: Christ was born the Lord of all.
Born thy peaceful kingdom to deliver, born a child, and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever—now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal Spirit, rule in all our hearts alone;
By thine all-sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne.

Oh, come, thou Wisdom from on high, who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go.

Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel…