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If you have a copy of God's Word, can I invite you to take it and turn with me to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2 and that's where we will be this morning.
Philippians in chapter number 2 as we think for a few moments together about the
Lord Jesus and about his resurrection and why it matters. So Philippians chapter 2.
Philippians chapter 2 and this morning will be in verses 5 through 11.
Philippians chapter 2 and verses 5 to 11. This is our habit.
If you're able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me out of reverence for God's Word as we read it. Philippians chapter 2 beginning in verse 5 and reading through to verse 11.
God's same attitude as that of Christ Jesus who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.
Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross.
For this reason, God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name.
So that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. Pray that God will bless that reading of his Word and give us understanding of it. Let's pray and ask for the
Lord's help as we come to his Word. Well Heavenly Father we ask as we open up your
Word and we especially this day think about the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ our risen and resurrected and reigning
Savior. We ask that as we think about his work for us, we pray that you would comfort all of us.
You would strengthen us as your people. Pray for anybody who's here or maybe watching online who doesn't know you. As your gospel goes forth, pray that you would do a work of opening eyes and transforming hearts through your
Word. Now Father I don't just pray that for us, I pray that for all the churches in our valley this morning who no doubt are giving serious time and thoughts to proclaiming the gospel.
We pray that there would be fruit from that. May people come to know you as a result. May those who do know you be even more strengthened and encouraged to serve you well.
We pray that for all of our brothers and sisters here in the valley. We pray that for ourselves this morning. Asking it in Jesus name and for his sake.
Amen. Please be seated. What's in a name?
What's in a name? Anyone know where that question comes from?
Romeo and Juliet. I believe it's act two scene two of Romeo and Juliet.
If you know the backstory to that question, Juliet's upset. She's upset in a lot of the play to be honest.
But Juliet is upset because she can't be with Romeo. Because if you know the story, there are two warring families,
Montagues and Capulets. Romeo is a Montague, she's a Capulet. And the two are, for whatever reason, if you've read the play, if you notice that we're never told why the two families hate each other.
They just do. But they hate each other. And so in act two scene two, she goes off on this basically saying, the question, what is in a name?
Essentially, it's her asking the question, does it really matter what he's called? I just love him. As you might detect in my tone of voice,
I love Shakespeare. I think Shakespeare's awesome. I don't think Romeo and Juliet is his best work. Someone might want to kill me for that, but this is true.
I don't think it's his best work. But the reason I start with that is not so much because I want to talk about Shakespeare this morning.
But as you can tell, I don't particularly care for Romeo and Juliet. And this is one of the reasons why. I'm sorry, Shakespeare, but actually names are important.
And we all know they are. As a culture, I don't need to labor the point to demonstrate to you that what something is called or who, or what someone, something, excuse me, or someone is called is kind of important.
In fact, in our culture, there are certain things we won't name people. So I don't know a lot of people who name their kid
Adolf anymore. Actually, it's a great name. I speak German. Adolf means noble or majestic wolf.
It's not a bad name. But there was a certain Adolf in history who kind of ruined the name for everyone.
In the US, so if I say the name Benedict Arnold, it communicates something to you.
I don't know a lot of Benedict Arnolds running around. We just had a little girl in our home.
When, actually, we didn't spend a lot of time thinking about a name, we already had a name picked out. But when
Laura and I were thinking about a name, Jezebel wasn't high on the list. Because we recognize that names actually mean something.
They communicate something. One of my best friends back home had a dog and he named his dog
Nero. There's a reason we name dogs Nero and we don't name people Nero. Just look it up.
Nero was not a good guy. Names actually mean something, and no offense to Juliet Capulet from the play, but actually, what's in a name?
There's a lot in a name. And for us as Christians, there is one name that means the world to us.
Of course, I'm talking about the name of Jesus. In fact,
Acts chapter 4, verse 12, it says that there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.
For Christians, that name is so weighty that we have banked our life and eternity on it.
Of course, that begs the question, if the name of Jesus is so important, why do we think the name of Jesus is so important?
Why do we believe that the name of Jesus is truly the name above all names?
If I can borrow Juliet's question from the play, what's in a name? That's the question
I want us to consider this morning, and I think this passage in Philippians chapter 2 is going to help us to answer that question.
You see, if I can leave you with one idea this morning, it's simply this, that the risen
Christ has the name above all names because of who He is and what
He has done. The risen Christ has the name above all names because of who
He is and what He has done. I get that from verses 10 and 11 of our text.
So look with me again, Philippians chapter 2, verse 10. So Paul says, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. So Jesus has this name that is above every name, and what
I want to do this morning is, in verse 10 and 11 is the conclusion, I want to ask the question, why does
He have that name? For the rest of our time this morning, I want to consider very quickly just three reasons why
Christ is worthy of the name above all names, why the name of Jesus is such a big deal.
So I want to consider three reasons why Christ is worthy of the name above all names.
I promise I won't be before you long. First off, can I invite you to consider just who Jesus is, to consider who
Jesus is. Since we're jumping into Philippians, we actually did the study of Philippians a couple of summers ago, but for some time's sake, allow me to give you just a bit of the background to the letter that we are reading.
Paul is on house arrest in Rome awaiting his trial dates, and while he's on house arrest, he writes a letter to the church of Philippi.
Philippi was a Roman colony in what is today known as Greece, and as he writes his letter, he's writing because word has gotten to the church in Philippi that Paul is in prison.
They're rightly concerned about him, they're a little bit worried, and so to comfort them and to assure them that he is fine, he writes his letter.
It's also apparent when you read the letter as a whole that they sent some sort of gift to Paul to help him out in his time of distress, and so he's also writing to say thank you.
But as he's writing to say thank you, he takes the time to encourage these believers to deepen their fellowship, deepen their partnership in the gospel together.
It's one of few letters of Paul where he doesn't really have a lot, if anything, bad to say about this church.
There's one tiny issue in chapter three, but beyond that, this is a really good church in a lot of ways, and so as Paul writes to them in Philippians chapter two, one of the things he wants to encourage them in, because they're already doing this, but he wants to encourage them to keep pursuing humility.
So he says in, look at verse two, he gives them these encouragements that they have in Christ, these reasons to pursue humility, and says verse two, make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
And so he wants to encourage them in this chapter to pursue humility. But for them to pursue humility, there are some things that they need to think about.
And so one of the things he wants them to think about is the example of the Lord Jesus. That's why our text begins in verse five, adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus.
That phrase adopt the same attitude, it's the same phrase that he uses in verse two, think the same way.
The mindset that characterized Jesus should be yours. Well, what was the mindset that characterized
Jesus? That's what Paul wants them to understand here. And to do that, Paul essentially reminds them of who
Jesus is. So look at me at verse six, he says adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.
When Paul uses this language of the form of God is referring to the nature of God, that which can be seen about someone or something.
You see the Christian message isn't that Jesus was a, think about the ways that Jesus is talked about in our culture. That some people say he's a great teacher.
There are some who would say, yeah, he was kind of enlightened supernaturally. Some would say, yeah, he was kind of divine, but kind of not.
No, no, no, the Christian message is that Jesus was truly
God. We believe that on the basis of the old Testament. So typically at Christmas time, the other big holiday for us as Christians, we read passages like Isaiah nine, six, go to us, a child will be born, a son is given to us.
Remember one of the titles given to him, he's called the mighty God. In Jeremiah 23 and six, there's this prophecy about one who would come, the branch from David's line.
And it's interesting when the prophet says that this branch will come one day, he says that his name will be
Yahweh is our righteousness, that he will have the very name of God.
And so we believe on the basis of the old Testament that Jesus is God. We believe it because the new Testament says so.
Jesus receives honors that are reserved only for God. He receives glory. He receives worship.
He receives the faith and the trust of people. He has all the attributes of God. When you read the new
Testament, he's preexistent. He's eternal. He's unchanging. He's all powerful. He's all knowing.
Even in the gospels, you see elements of him being all presence. He's given the names of God.
He's referred to as Lord, King of Kings and Lords of Lords, a savior, the I am.
In fact, a few times, he's explicitly called God. And Jesus does deeds that only
God can do. He creates and sustains. He grants illumination and spiritual understanding.
He speaks with God's own authority, and he even has the power to forgive sins.
New Testament even tells us that he occupies the very same seat that God does. Beloved, this passage is not teaching us, and nowhere in the
Bible does it teach that Jesus became God because of some reward for obedience, or as a result of some moment of enlightenment.
No, when Jesus entered into our world, he came as the creeds of our
Christian tradition often tell us, he came as God, a very God. But notice that Paul doesn't just say that he existed in the form of God.
He goes on and says, who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.
Did you catch the zinger in there? Jesus is
God, and yet Paul makes us to understand that Jesus didn't say, I'm God. I'm standing on business as it were.
This is who I am. I am not giving this up. Let's be clear.
Jesus didn't give up being God when he came into our world, of course. But Paul's point is that he didn't take the status of being
God as it were, as something that he had to hold on to at all costs. He was willing to enter into his own creation.
And I put it to you that the fact that Jesus is indeed God, if nothing else is said about Jesus, that alone should give him the name above all names.
I think we can all agree that. But that's not the only reason that Paul gives us in this passage.
Because yes, he's worthy of having the name above all names because of who he is.
But Paul also invites us not just to consider who Jesus is. He also invites us to consider what
Jesus went through, to consider what Jesus went through.
Jesus didn't fight for his own way and insist on his rights. Paul tells us, look at verse seven. Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity.
Yes, Jesus was God. But can I point out to you first of all that, yes, he was God and he also became a man.
So Paul uses this language in verse seven of emptying. There's a good way to understand that and a not so good way.
The not so good way is to kind of have this idea that Jesus came, yes, he was God, but when he came as a man, he came only as a man.
That's not what Paul is saying here. Emptying, without getting too technical, it's a figure of speech. It's a way of explaining something.
You know, Paul explains his own figure of speech because, at least in the translation we use, you catch what it says?
It says, instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity.
He assumes the form of a servant that though he was worthy of worship, because again, if he is
God, he is infinitely worthy of worship. And yet though he was worthy of worship, he took the role of being nothing.
He became a servant. So he empties himself by assuming the form of a servant and he empties himself by taking on the likeness of humanity.
So he doesn't stop being God, but he does add to his divine nature a very real human nature.
Can I explain all the complexities of that? Because there are some complexities to it. No, as a human being, all of us in this room, we only have one nature.
You have a human nature. But Jesus was the only person in history who had both a human nature and a divine nature.
Can I explain to you how they exist together? I can explain some things, so you don't mix the natures.
It's not like Jesus became a third kind of humanity or third kind of creature, if you will. No, none of that.
But can I explain all the complexities of it? Nope. I can't fully explain it to you.
But all I know is that it happened. And where my understanding ends as a
Christian, faith and worship begins. Because think about it with me for a moment.
How is it that the bread of life could become hungry? How could it be that the living water knew what it was to thirst?
The Bible refers to God and says that he's the keeper of his, the one that never slumbers nor sleeps.
Yet when we read the Bible, we see Jesus got tired and slept. The Bible refers to God as the
God of all comfort multiple times. And yet the Bible makes us to understand that Jesus knew what it was to be grieved and to feel pain.
I believe on the basis of God's word that Jesus never sinned. I also believe that he never could sin. And yet Jesus knew what it was to be truly human.
Back in the UK, where I'm from, we have a hymn that we typically sing around Easter time. It's written by a pastor called
Joseph Hart. He said, a man there is a real man with wounds still gaping wide from which rich streams of blood once ran in hand and feet and side.
Jesus was truly human. He became a man, but he didn't just become a man just because he wanted to, as it were, take a extraterrestrial field trip, as it were, into creation.
No, he becomes a man for a glorious purpose. He becomes a man, the Bible says, to die.
He becomes a man to die. Look at verse eight. It says that when you come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on a cross.
Having become a man, Jesus went all the way to the most human experience of all, death.
Anyone here seen the movie Bicentennial Man before? It's an interesting movie. It was, um,
Robin Williams was the main character in that film. He's a robot who wants to become a man and he kind of gets his wish.
It's kind of a fun, sci -fi -ish type movie. But at the end of the movie, he's getting old and he's dying.
And he says to the scientist who helped him become a human, what is this? Right at the end of the movie, he says, what is this that I'm feeling?
And for, I think it was a Disney movie, if I remember right. For a Disney movie, it's quite a profound moment. He's, the scientist says to him, you're feeling death.
Is there anything more human than death? There's a sense in which death is unnatural. We weren't made to die, but yes, we live in a fallen world and death happens.
But ever since Adam and Eve broke God's law, death has been, as it were, the suspended sentence that hangs over all of creation.
If you are human, you will die. That's what the word of God says. Hebrews 9, 27, as it is appointed for men once to die.
And after this judgment, beloved, have you ever thought about this? That if Jesus had never died, think about with me for a moment.
If Jesus had never died, you could question his humanity. Yet he did die.
People saw his death. People played very real roles in that death. People buried him and they knew where he was buried.
Jesus really died. And in fact, he didn't just die, you know, he didn't die in his sleep.
He didn't, um, you know, kind of die of old age or what have you. You know what
Paul says? Verse eight, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the to death on a cross.
Today, crosses are kind of a cute thing, aren't they? We wear them. I have one that I like to wear when
I travel. Uh, we adorn buildings with them. Our building has two of them. If you've noticed one on this side, one on the other side, we even put them in our logo.
Our church logo has a cross in it. We rightly, it's not a wrong thing, it's a right thing we do.
We prize the very image of the cross. But have you ever thought about the fact that in the world of Jesus and his apostles, crosses were anything but pretty.
Crucifixion was something you didn't talk about in polite company. Rome didn't invent crucifixion, but they sure perfected its use.
It became to this day, one of the most painful methods of execution ever devised.
By the time that Rome got their hands on actually, but by the time that Rome got their hands on the concepts of crucifixion, it had turned from just a simple event of executing someone to a marathon of pain and torture and shame.
We have records from the first century of people lasting up to three days when they were crucified.
It was considered a shameful way to die. In fact, if you are a Roman citizen, no matter what you did, even if you had to be executed, you couldn't be executed by crucifixion because they considered it such a shameful thing.
It was a death reserved for the worst of criminals. And the
Bible says, that's the death that Jesus went to willingly. And think about the toll that that had to have taken on them.
Of course, there's the physical pain. We can at least understand some of that, but then think about this for a moment.
If he's eternal God, if he has never sinned, but the Bible says that now he is bearing the weight of our sin.
He now has to endure that on top of whatever physical suffering that he is enduring. As one writer put it,
Jesus was perfectly holy. He hated sin with his entire being. The thought of evil of sin contradicted everything in his character, far more than we do.
Jesus instinctively rebelled against evil, yet in obedience to the father and out of love for us,
Jesus took on himself all the sins of those who would one day be saved, taking on himself all the evil against which his soul rebelled, created deep revulsion in the center of his being.
All that he hated most deeply was poured out fully upon him.
And then of course, as he's taking on the sins of all who would believe in him, the Bible makes us understand he is taking on the very wrath of God, the righteous response of God to sin.
Jesus suffered all of that, not for his own sin, but for the sins of others.
He became a man to die. And when the Bible speaks about the death of the cross is more than just the act of dying.
It's the totality of all the suffering that he went through. And because he went through all of that suffering, he receives the name that is above all names.
And again, if Jesus' story had ended there, that would do it for the name above all names.
I think we can agree. When we consider who Jesus is, when we consider what he went through, that should be more than enough.
But of course, we celebrate on Resurrection Sunday that that isn't where his story ended. Jesus deserves the name above all names because of who he is and because of what he went through.
But can I draw your attention to a third reason why Jesus has the name above all names?
I've asked you to consider who Jesus is, to consider what he went through. And thirdly, can
I invite you to consider where Jesus is now, to consider where Jesus is now.
Paul does something amazing. He's a great writer in so many ways. If you read this, you may think, have we skipped something in the story of Jesus?
Because he goes from the cross in verse nine, verse eight, excuse me, to his exaltation in verse nine.
So verse nine says, but this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name.
Wait, highly exalted him, wait, isn't that where he's in heaven now? No, I don't think
Paul skipped a step at all. See, when we talk about Jesus' exaltation, his exaltation didn't start when he went to heaven.
The exaltation of Christ started at the resurrection. Have you ever noticed that the
Bible often uses this language of Jesus being raised up to talk about his resurrection? So the first Christian sermon that's preached at chapter two,
Peter says that God raised Jesus up, ending the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by death.
Romans 4, 24 and 25 says, but also for us, it will be credited to us who believe in him, who raised
Jesus our Lord from the dead. Paul reminds the
Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6, 14 that God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
The exaltation of Jesus didn't begin with his going to heaven. No, it began when the Jesus who was truly dead, who spent three days and three nights in the tomb, when he rose from the grave with all power, when he came back to life, the exaltation was on.
So God highly exalted Jesus in the resurrection, but not only did Jesus rise up out of the grave, the
Bible makes us to understand that he was raised to the right hand of the Father.
This is prophesied in the Old Testament. The most quoted verse in the Old Testament is Psalm 110 .1.
Psalm 110 .1 says, this is the declaration of Yahweh the Lord to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
The New Testament quotes and alludes to that a bunch in reference to this moment where Jesus is exalted to the right hand of the
Father. Ephesians 1 .20 makes it very clear. It says that God the Father exercised power in Christ by raising him from the dead.
So there's the first part of his exaltation and seating him at his right hand in the heavens.
Jesus came into our world as the suffering servant, but what we celebrate on Easter is the fact that, oh my battery's dead, no okay good, the suffering servant entered into our world, but he ascended to heaven on a hero's welcome.
And when he ascended to heaven on a hero's welcome, he received a throne that is high above all.
So verse 10 and 11 says, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. Those two verses are an allusion to Isaiah 45 all the way back in the
Old Testament. They're not a direct quote, but Paul is using that language and tying it in with the Old Testament.
When you read the original passage in Isaiah 45, what's interesting is Jesus isn't the one speaking there.
It's Yahweh who's speaking. He's speaking to those who worship idols and he's basically warning them that a day is coming where all those who worship idols will be put away.
And so he calls the earth, Isaiah 45 22, to turn to him and be saved because there is no one else who is able to save.
And then he says, in fact in Isaiah 45, he swears by himself that to him every knee will bow and of him every tongue will swear allegiance.
What's interesting is Paul takes that and says, yes that was speaking of Yahweh, but it's speaking of Jesus.
And that only makes sense if, I think that's what we just said, Jesus is indeed the same as Yahweh.
He is indeed God. One day the world that views
Jesus as nothing more than a servant to be despised and ignored will bow its knee to him because, follow the logic with me from where we've been in this passage so far, if Jesus is eternal
God, and if Jesus was truly human, and if Jesus died a sinner's death without actually being a sinner, and if Jesus rose from the dead, and if right now he is highly exalted to the father's right hand, if all of that is true, then of course he has the name above all names.
And if that is true, we only really have two options, don't we? You could say, you know what, yeah
I know the Bible says that, but I really don't care. You can ignore it and, you know, go, um, you know, this is all go our merry little way, you know, eat, drink, and marry for tomorrow we die, there's no big deal.
But what if this is indeed true? If this is indeed true, you can't really just ignore it and go in your merry little way, can you?
If this is indeed true, then the only other option we truly have is to bow now before him in faith, believing all that God has said about Jesus is true.
Because know in this passage that Paul doesn't say that this is going to be a potential thing that happens.
Did you catch it? So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. This really isn't up for debate.
The only question is, are you going to bow to him now as a gracious savior, or will you bow before him in judgment on that great and terrible day when he returns?
And when you think of it like that, this moves from just being a matter of, this might be important.
It really becomes a matter of life and death, doesn't it? But that's what we come to think about when we gather for Resurrection Sunday.
We come to grapple with the claims of Christ who not only died for us and lived for us, he was raised for us.
He truly has the name that is above all names. And if that is the case, if you're here today and you don't know him, can
I invite you to truly grapple with the claims that he makes?
Can I invite you to acknowledge your sin, acknowledge the fact that you have broken God's law, and to trust in Jesus today?
If you're here and you don't know the law, come talk to me or to Brad or to any of the folks here. We would love to help you know more about that.
And for those of us who are here who do know the Lord Jesus, let's be cautious that we never lose our wonder of what we celebrate today.
And as I said at the beginning of the message, every Sunday we celebrate the resurrection. Let's never lose our wonder at the fact that God became a man in Christ.
Let's never lose our wonder at the fact that he went to the cross for us, that he truly died, and that he was exalted far above all.
Let's never lose sight of the fact that we truly worship one who has been given the name above all names.
Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as we reflect on the reality that your
Son and our Savior Jesus was truly given the name that is above all names, Father, we simply ask that we would not take for granted just what a weighty thing that is.
Father, I pray that for anybody who is listening either here or online who doesn't know you, that they would come to know you, that the one who bears the name above all names would become their
Lord and Savior. Father, I pray for as many of us who do know you, that we would always wonder and marvel and rejoice in the reality that you are our risen and exalted
Savior. Thank you so much for the cross, and thank you so much for the resurrection.
We praise and honor your name, and we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake.