The Humbled and Exalted Christ: Part 2

Well, the central message from the Bible, actually, is from the Word of God, is summed up in one who is the only Savior and only Lord, Jesus Christ, the person of Christ, His personhood, His work. There's a wonderful poem I wrote down for you that was written and printed in the very first Bible printed in Scotland, back in the year 1576.

That's before the King James translation, isn't it? 1576. It goes like this. Here's the spring where waters flow to quench our heat of sin. Here's the tree where truth doeth grow to lead our lives therein.

Here is the judge that stints the strife when men's devices fail. Here is the bread that feeds the life that death cannot assail. The tidings of salvation, dear, comes to our ears from hence. The fortress of our faith is here and shield of our defense.

Then be not like the swine that hath a pearl at his desire. And takes more pleasure from the troth and wallowing in the mire. But with a single eye, read not, but first desire God's grace to understand thereby.

Pray still in faith with this respect to bear good fruit therein, that knowledge may bring this effect to mortify your sin. Then happy you shall be in all your life what so to you befalls. Yes, double happy you shall be when God by death you cause.

Praise God. It's an animus. I don't know who wrote that, but it sure looks like they knew the gospel, didn't they? Now, that poem no doubt expresses absolute confidence in the person of God, doesn't it?

A confidence that is only in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ in Him alone. His one and only Son. Now, for the past several Lord's Days, we have been looking into the Word of God. And we've been going through a series from the Epistle of Philippians chapter 2.

We've been there before.

The Exalted Christ in Philippians 2

So, please turn with me in your Bible to Philippians chapter 2. The Epistle of Joy as it's called, as Paul wrote this in a dungeon cell. It's a beautiful and glorious portrait of Jesus Christ in which we have been looking at.

And in this letter we've written by the Apostle Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. One of the great portraits of Jesus Christ in Scripture is given here. Now, first of all, I want to read the text of Scripture to you.

And again, this is the Word of the Living God, the inspired Word of God, written down by the hand of the Apostle Paul. But every word that is from God so that it is the truth and only the truth that God has desired to be communicated to each and every one of us.

In this wonderful second chapter, we read the name Christ Jesus at the end of verse 5, beginning with verse 5 in chapter 2. Wonderful text, isn't it? I'll read verse 5. Now, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

And then he says in verse 6, Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant in the coming and the likeness of men.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, and that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

What a glorious text this is, from the word of the living God. And that is one of the great portraits of Jesus Christ in Scripture. Please bow with me. Briefly, just for a moment of prayer as we continue to worship our Lord and as we look into his word.

Our Father and our great God, Lord, we thank you for your holy word. We thank you for this Bible. It's been through fire, it's been through water, it's been baptized in blood. Now, Lord, we would ask you to take this awesome word that we've read from the written pages of the Bible, by your blessed Holy Spirit, and burn it within our hearts, Lord.

For your word is living, it's active, it's sharper than any two-edged sword. It's alive, and it reads our hearts. It causes a verdict, Lord, for us to examine ourselves. It changes our lives, it transforms us from the inside out.

Lord, we're not here just for information and more knowledge. Here, Lord, we desire transformation. Lord, we thank you for your word that it also gives eternal life through Jesus Christ. Lord, we'd ask you that your word would sanctify us wholly.

That may not a single one of us leave here today the same way we came. Lord, I would ask, give us more of yourself. We need you every hour. We need you every hour. We need you desperately in the day in which we live, Lord.

For you, Jesus Christ, is the only hope that we have. It's the only hope that this world has. Father, we just bless this time together. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Now, my introduction to today's message.

I would like to give you a vivid picture. It comes from a book called Miracles. It was written by the late C .S. Lewis, and in this particular chapter in the Bible entitled The Grand Miracle. It's a chapter on the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

And in this wonderful chapter he draws some very, very rich analogies for us by which we can view in the mind's eye, by faith, the glorious incarnation of Jesus Christ. You probably will not get a clearer, more vivid picture outside of the word of God than what C .S. Lewis has written here about what Jesus actually came to do and what He did.

Let me read to you an extended portion, and I promise you it will be worth your while to hear this, of what he says, because it's so rich in what Jesus Christ has did in coming to this earth in the incarnation.

Lewis says this, quote,. In the Christian story, God descends to re-ascend. He comes down, down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity, down further still, down, down to the very roots and seabed of the nature that He created, but goes down to come up again and bring the ruined world up with Him.

One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift. He must also disappear under the load before He incredibly straightens His back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on His shoulders.

Or one may think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness, then glazing into the mid-air, and then going down with a splash and vanish rushing down through the green and warm water into black and cold water, down through the increasing pressure into the death-like region of ooze and slime and old decay.

Then up again, up again, back to the cold and light, and His lungs almost bursting till suddenly He breaks surface again holding in His hand the dripping precious thing that He came, that He went down to recover.

He and it are both colored now, that they have come up into the light. Down below where it lay colorless in the dark He lost the color too. In this descent and reassent everyone will recognize a familiar pattern, a thing written all over the world.

It is the pattern of all vegetable life, He says. It must belittle itself into something hard, small, death-like. It must fall into the ground. Then the new life reassents. It is the pattern of all animal life, generation two.

There is a pattern of descent from the full and perfect organisms into the spermatozoon and the ovum and into the dark womb, a life at first of inferior kind of species which is being reproduced and then slow ascent into the perfect embroil to the living conscience baby and finally to the adult.

So it is in our mortal and emotional life the first innocent and spontaneous desires have to submit to total denial. But from that there is also a reassent to fully form character in which the strength of the original material all operates but a new way.

Now listen to what He says here.

Death and rebirth go down. Death and rebirth go down to go up. It is a key principle. It is a key principle. And through this bottleneck there is belittlement and the high road nearby always lies. Now that is a lengthy quote but notice what He is speaking about here.

It is that pattern.

And the pattern is given in Philippians 2. In order to be exalted one must be brought low. That is the lesson. And this is exactly what Jesus Christ did. It is profound. This is a profound analogy within words of C .S. Lewis and how He approaches the incarnation which is the central miracle of Christianity.

It is the most wonderful of all things that God has ever did, I believe. And this great miracle is no doubt the grand theme of the verses of Scripture which is before us in our text this morning. So this text is about descent.

It is about the descent that God made in the person of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the second member of the Triune God. Now, it is all about the descent of God the Son, Jesus Christ and it is a mission.

He came to rescue. He is like a great diver, isn't He? He goes after His possession and He gets each and every one of all that would come to Him. He loses none, the Bible says. As Lewis so wonderfully describes,.

Quote again,.

He says,.

No seed ever fell so far from a tree into so dark a cold a soil as the Son of God did. And how true that is. Now, I like for us to see this from Philippians chapter 2. It is a very straightforward word and the Apostle Paul by the Spirit of God speaks to us about this descent that the Son of God made.

Look at verse 5 with me. Christ Jesus.

Christ Jesus.

Who?

Although He existed in the form of God. We looked at that last week. It is such a profound statement. He, Jesus Christ, existed in the form of God. The first and great question is, Who is Jesus Christ?

We must bring this to every single person. Who is Jesus Christ? Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. What a revelation. That is the confession of the church. And we hold to that confession.

Now, to say that He existed is to touch His essential nature. We looked at that. And I like to back up and touch on that just a little bit and pull us right into where we are heading in this path. It describes part of a man and says one writer, which in spite of all the chances and the changes of life and all the circumstances remains the same.

He is unchangeable. Paul, the apostle, saying that He, Jesus Christ, existed in the essential, unchangeable nature. The form of God. The morphe of God. So when asked the question, Who is Jesus Christ? The first thing that you have to be confronted with is the statement of Scripture that He is in His essential being.

He is unchanging in His nature. He is in the form of God. He is the morphe of God. It is incredibly deep here. Because Jesus is the only person in this entire universe that is essentially God. And He is one person but has two natures.

Deity and manhood. He is the God-man that is intermingled in one. He is not half God or half man. He is one person with two natures. That is a mystery folks. And I am telling you, we could stop right there and worship.

And how great it is. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, Paul says. Now, Jesus Christ never has been and never will be any other than God. Let us keep this in mind. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 8.

What does he say? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Isn't that a wonderful verse? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And that is what Paul is actually saying. He is in the form of God.

He never changes. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 says this. Who being in the brightness of His glory, speaking about Jesus Christ, and the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged or cleansed our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

You mean to tell me, pastor, that Jesus Christ is not a created being? Absolutely. He is not a created being. He always was. And always will be. But what does it mean that He came into the manger that He was born?

Was that just another baby? No, it wasn't. It was not just another baby. Actually, the mystery of the incarnation is this, and the greatness of it is that that baby was an infant, but that baby was also the infinite one.

And that's why we celebrate Christmas. That Jesus Christ, when He was born, and took upon Himself flesh, this holy thing that the Virgin Mary had in Her womb was none other than Her Creator, was Her Savior,.

Was God,.

The Almighty God. Can you imagine the way she must have felt? That looking when she had Him and gave birth to Him, that this is the Creator? You see, so Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the radiance of God's glory.

That's why Jesus said to Philip,.

He said,.

If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. You've seen Me, you've seen the Father. In other words, you've seen deity. He is the express image of the Father. And all that He came to reveal is God. Now, He is the exact representation of His nature.

He is the exact representation of the nature of God. Colossians 1 .15 says, He is the image of the invisible God. He is the image of the invisible God. So, when we're asked the question, Who is Jesus Christ? The first answer is, He is permanently, He's existing as God.

He's none other than God. God Himself. But people get mixed up on this because, see, He's the second person of the Trinity. There's one God,.

And Scripture says that,.

But always remember, and as you well know, what a mystery this is as well. One God in three persons. One God in three persons. John 1 .1 -5 says it like this, In the beginning was the Word, the Logos.

The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Verse 2, He was in the beginning with God.

Notice those words.

He, speaking of Jesus Christ, was with God. And what it's speaking of, with God the Father.

Then it says,.

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. And Him was life, and the life was the light of man, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

In other words, the darkness did not overpower it. So Jesus Christ is none other than God. Who being in the form of God. And secondly, look at verse 6, from this glorious presentation of the deity of Jesus Christ, the apostle begins to track the incarnation.

First he establishes that he is God, and who he is, as the scripture so clearly says in many places. And now he begins, even though he is God, although he is God in true nature, in essence, he secondly says that he did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped, and he did not regard equality, in other words, to cling to.

Being in the form of God, he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, the scripture says. Did not regard it robbery to be equal with God. To put it as simple as I can, because Christ is God, he did not look on sharing God's nature as a robbery, a thing to grasp to, to cling to.

What does that mean? In other words, he did not desire to have a thing to seize it, to clutch it, like a robber clutches the things in which he robs. He did not cling to those prerogatives, those privileges, as God Almighty.

Now, I want you to think of this, this is awesome. We're talking about the Almighty creator of the universe, just not a good prophet, just not another person, just not a good man, but God Almighty, who gave up all his riches and privileges, and the glory that he was sharing with the Father, and dove down deep,.

Would you please,.

To come down deep into the darkness of the earth, to bring up a ruined humanity and sinners, to save us. That's why he came. He did not look at it as a thing to be seized, as though he might lose it. Jesus is the very being of God, in every sense equal with God, because he is God.

He refuses to cling to the equality, he refuses to cling to the privileges and the rights, that go along with that equality, and refuses to grasp to it and clutch it. So really, we can say this, the incarnation literally begins with, the unselfishness of God.

The unselfishness of God, the unselfishness of Christ. It begins with Jesus, being willing to let go of the glory, that he had with the Father, before the world began. Because this was a covenant, that the Father and the Son had, before time started rolling.

Now folks,.

You start thinking about this, and start meditating on this, it goes way beyond what we can even ask or think of, because we are creature beings, and our creature beings has limitations.

Right?

But we're looking at the almighty God, that left the privileges and glories of heaven, and he comes to this earth, to save sinners. That's the mission.

Jesus willingly,.

Let go of all the glories of heaven. And keep in mind,.

I said this last week,.

It was only for a season. He let it go, and he descended to the earth, as to rescue the lost sinners. Now, let's go to verse 7, but made of himself of no reputation. Look at that. He made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond slave, coming in the likeness of men.

Again, the phrase can be translated, he emptied himself. This is the great kenosis. Christ did this by taking on the form of a slave, or bond servant. A bond slave, I would say, in the original, a mere man.

He did this by not emptying himself, of any part of his essence as God, his deity. He did not empty himself of that,.

Because you think of it,.

If he emptied himself of deity, when he came, he would cease to be God.

He didn't do that.

Actually, instead, he gave up his privileges as God, he took upon himself the existence as a man. He learned,.

As the scripture says,.

He learned obedience as a man,.

And,.

Full of the Holy Spirit, through sufferings, he suffered, he slept,.

He ate,.

He was hungry, he was grieved, he was fully man. And if anyone says anything else from that,.

They're absolutely wrong.

He was fully man, but he was fully God. The incarnation is the kenosis. The self-emptying of Christ. It's a very graphic term, isn't it? He empties himself, he empties himself of the privileges and the prerogatives that he has and the rights by the divine nature.

The act of,.

One theologian puts it this way, self-renunciation. I think that's a very good term. Self-renunciation. God renunciated himself. He humbles himself. It's an act of self-renunciation, a refusal to cling to the rights and to grasp it, to take a hold of it, and he lets it go.

And that's what he does. Now, he did not empty himself of his deity again. That's so important because a lot of people and even some false prophets and teachers would even say that he emptied himself of deity, but again, he would have ceased to exist because he would have ceased to be God.

You see, his nature is absolutely unchanging. He is and always has been and always will be God. Never changes. Isn't that glorious?

Think about that for a while.

Well,.

You got chapter and verse for that, pastor? Absolutely. Revelation chapter 1 verse 8. Jesus himself says to the apostle John on Nile of Patmos, he says this, I am, right there.

He is the I am.

Many times we see the I am statements through the gospel of John, but here in Revelation, Jesus says to John the apostle, I am the alpha and the omega. That's the beginning and the end. That's the Greek word.

The alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end. And notice what he says. Says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.

Jesus says that.

Pastor John MacArthur.

Says this,.

Concerning Christ his deity, even hanging on the cross, in the midst of suffering, even in the moments that he was under the judgment of God, his father, even when he was under the bearing the weight of sin and the wrath of God against that sin, he did not for a millisecond cease to be almighty God himself, hanging on that cross.

The issue is not that he divested himself of deity, but that he did not demand his rights.

As deity.

He set aside his prerogatives, his privileges, his rights. End quote. I love the old wonderful hymn written by Isaac Watson. It's one of my favorite hymns and you have different versions of this. They've actually taken out the word worm.

Maybe it's just too offensive to them that they don't like to be called a worm. Brother Keith and myself, we talk about this quite often, don't we? We are worms. We are dirt. As he said this morning. Isaac Watson said it like this,.

Alas, did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? Was it for sins that I had done that he groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree.

Well, might the sun darkness hide and shut his glories in when Christ the mighty maker died for man, the creature's sin? The last stanza goes, but drops of grief can never repay the debt of love I owe.

Here, Lord, I give myself to thee. That's all I can do.

Amen?

That's all we can do. And as the apostle Paul says in Romans 11, 33 through 36, and we use this as a benediction quite often,. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments, his ways past finding out.

Who has known the mind of the Lord, and who has become his counselor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him? For of him, and through him, and to him are all things to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Well, back to the Philippians. Look at verse 7. And Philippians 2. Then the Scripture says,. But made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond slave, and coming in the likeness of men.

Even though Jesus.

Christ came to seek and save that which was lost, and in doing that, he became as a bond slave, a servant, to serve the will of God, the purpose of God. That was all of his life. He came to do the will of God.

God's will, God's desire. He says, I'll always do those things that please God, my Father. I must be about my Father's business, he said many times. He came to do the will of God. The will of God. To submit to the Father.

And in Luke 22 27, he said this, I am.

Among you as one who serves.

And he said in Matthew 20 and Mark 10, the son of man has not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Isn't that a wonderful verse? And his service was rendered toward God.

First and foremost, to God and to God's glory. You know, so many times we think, well, he came for my salvation. Well, absolutely he did. But first and foremost, he dies and does everything when he died and he lived and everything that he did it was to the glory of God, the Father.

It was for the Father. He was always seeking to please his Father. And he did please his Father. And his service was rendered toward God. And he became the bond slave of God. He came to serve. Can you think of that for a moment?

That when Jesus stooped down to wash the disciples' feet before he went to the cross, here was the creator of the ends of the earth, the one that made them stooped down. He continues to stoop and continues to humble himself and he washes feet.

Washes.

Feet. A slave.

You know, you think of this. A slave is one in the context that it's a term that refers to the lowest status of social ladder. The lowest status. Hebrews 10, 5 says this and listen to this very closely.

Therefore, when he came speaking of Jesus, when he came into the world, he said, sacrifice an offering you did not desire but a body you have prepared for me. Isn't that beautiful?

A body.

He came in flesh. He came in flesh. He made himself of no reputation. He emptied himself.

He didn't.

Empty himself of his deity but he emptied himself of his positional equality with God and to veil the glory in a body of human flesh. John 1, 14 says and the word became flesh. The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the apostle says and the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and full of truth.

So while Christ as God was uncreated and the external and the eternal, I'm sorry. The word became flesh. This emphasizes Christ taking on humanity.

This is.

The great mystery of mysteries, beloved. That he took flesh. It's profoundly staggering, really. If you think of it, it's mysterious but it leads us to worship. How can any of us even try to begin to figure this out?

And I like.

What Dr. Tozer says. He says make room for mystery. If you have a God that you got figured out, you don't have the God of the.

Scriptures.

It's profoundly staggering because it's a mystery and it should be mysterious. That the infinite became finite. That the eternal was conformed to time. That the invisible became visible. He reduced himself to the natural.

The word became flesh. The incarnation, the word, the logos. Christ did not cease to be God but became God in human flesh. In other words, he pitched his tent. He tabernacled among us. He came. He came.

The Bible says he came unto his own and his own received him not. Matthew 1 .23 says, Behold the virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his.

Name. Emmanuel.

Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. Those three words is the hope of mankind. It's the hope. The only hope that you and I have. That God is with us. And God is with us and he came to live here among us.

He lived and he died. He rose again and he lives forever more. That's our hope. That's the gospel. Well let's go to verse 8. And being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient.

He became obedient to the point of death, even the death of a cross. Have you noticed the descent?

Even when he is.

First born, he has humbled himself. He's already.

Humbled. He's already descended.

When he was born in the manger, God was made flesh. He goes even further. He humbles himself coming all the way from glory. He gives up his rights. He gives up his privileges, his prerogatives. And he didn't regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he didn't clutch to it.

And then he goes down even further. He empties himself down, down, down, even like C .S. Lewis said, to become a bond slave with no reputation. Down even further. He became a man taking flesh. Down even further.

All that could be seen was humanity. And down when he comes to the point of death, and now he goes to the death of a cross. A cross.

This.

Is staggering. This is.

Profound. The most shocking, the most humiliating, the most horrible thing in Roman times was the crucifixion. I believe it was adopted by the Syrians.

If you study it.

The Syrians adopted crucifixion in those days. The crucifixion was the most painful way to die. It was the shameful, most cruel, and most humiliating, and the most humble form of death that it was even imaginable to man.

It was so inhumane. Crucifixion of a Roman cross. You don't hear much about it today because a lot of preachers dare not preach about it because they're afraid they're going to lose their congregation.

Well, so be it. It needs to be preached because this is the message.

This is what Jesus did.

He died on a cross.

And by the way,.

If ministers of the gospel and if you and I are not preaching the cross to people, we're not preaching the gospel.

It may.

Be foolishness to men, but to God, to us, it is the power of God.

And the salvation. A person.

That was nailed by the hands, the feet, to a wooden cross, which was actually dropped into a socket by a heavy beam. It was a beam ripping and tearing the flesh,.

Suspended in.

For hours, and it was a slow death of.

Suffocation. It was made.

Specifically.

For the riffraff and the Roman citizens. The non-Roman citizens, I'm sorry. MacArthur once again says this, no dictified person would ever be put on a cross. Only the rankest of criminals, the lowest of the low, the worst of the worst.

To put somebody on a cross, he says, was unthinkable. The Jews on occasion did not, did put a body on a cross, but only after it was dead. If the body was the body of a blasphemer, because Deuteronomy says, curse is he that is hanged on a tree, but they, speaking of the Jews, would never crucify a living person.

They just didn't go along with it. Too horrific, because it was ultimate in human degradation, but Jesus Christ came all the way down to that. All the way down to that. End quote. Well, we see it. This was his purpose.

This was his mission.

It was the cross.

You know, you don't have to turn there, but Isaiah 53 is a very vivid picture of the suffering servant of Jesus Christ dying on the cross. Let me read a little bit from that wonderful chapter. Who has believed, I report, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He has no form of comeliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men.

A man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And we hid, listen.

To that, we hid as it were.

Our faces from him. How many people are hiding from God today? As he was despised, and we did not esteem him.

Surely he has.

Borne our griefs. He's carried our sorrows. And yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.

Verse 6.

All.

We, some?

No, all. Listen to that. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of.

Us all. He was.

Oppressed, and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before it shears his silence. So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from the prison, from the judgment.

And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people he was stricken. And they made his grave with the wicked and with the rich at his death.