Highly Exalted!

Sermon Transcript:

(transcribed with AI)

Promontory Community Church exists to make disciples of Jesus who know, live, and share the gospel for the glory of God. Amen.

Well, happy Easter once again. It is such a good day to be able to be together. Thank you again for joining us. I don't know what your plans are for the rest of today or for the rest of this weekend. But growing up in my house, we had a tradition that the kids would get to find Easter eggs, and so usually it was after church, my mum would go and she would hide all of the Easter eggs for my sisters and I to find. And every Easter, when my mum would do this, we would then go out and try and find them, and it would take us, I'm not joking, hours, hours to find these.

My mum was so good at hiding things, I mean she would hide them behind drywall holes and she would, they would be everywhere, they'd be inside suitcases in like the bottom of the storage room. It was, it took us a long time. Most years, we wouldn't find them all until about a week later, right? We would still be searching. In fact, one year, it was July when we found the last one, and it was only because a windstorm had blown it out of a tree that no one knew.

Right, my mum was great at hiding them, the problem is she was not great at remembering them. She would hide them all, and then we would ask, mum, we can't find them all, and she'd go, I don't know, have you looked here? And she would have forgotten all of them. And it was, it always drove us nuts because she didn't tone down the hiding ever, she just continued to hide them extremely well. Happy to report that now as I am a parent, I've carried on this tradition, alright?

But actually being a parent and hiding these, I realize now how difficult it is, right, a couple dozen eggs, and you do kind of forget, don't you? You might remember some of the major ones, but after a while you do kind of forget where they are all hidden. Right, memory is always a very tricky thing, isn't it? We forget details all the time, right? Sometimes things get exaggerated in our memory or we just misremember and forget important details. That's why we write things down, or as one person suggested, take a picture of where you hide all the eggs, it helps, alright? That's why even when you go to court, if there's only one witness to something, well that's actually a lot harder to defend, right? Memory is a challenging thing.

It's often one of the reasons why people struggle to even believe the Bible. Right, it's written down by people going off of their memory. Are we sure that's even accurate? Things get exaggerated over time. Sure, maybe Jesus was a good teacher at first, but a couple hundred years later, after exaggerations and things getting blown out of proportion, maybe that's when people started talking about him as God. This resurrection maybe was more spiritual, less physical. We can't really trust people's memory, can we? And so often we look at the Bible and we kind of doubt.

It's not hard, it's making some pretty incredible claims that Jesus was actually God Himself, who died and then was risen from the dead. That is an incredible claim. It's not hard to understand why people struggle with that. If you're in that boat, please hear me, I understand. But maybe let me help a little bit, because what we're reading when we pick up our Bible is not a couple hundred years later, actually, it's written by eyewitnesses, or at least people who have interviewed eyewitnesses, and not just one person.

Rather, we actually get a number of different witnesses all reporting the same thing, using their own individual voices to actually agree on what happened, of who Jesus is, and his death and resurrection. And actually if you begin to look into church history, you're gonna find actually, it's not a slow evolution of different ideas about Jesus, rather right from the very beginning, the church has always worshiped Jesus as God. The one who died and rose again.

In fact, this morning we're gonna open our Bibles to the book of Philippians, alright, Philippians chapter 2, if you want to find your way there already. And what we're reading is actually an early hymn of the church. Paul is the one who's writing this letter to the church in Philippi, and then partway through this chapter, he suddenly sort of breaks out into song. Many people assume, and I think it's a reasonable assumption. That Paul's actually quoting an early hymn of the church, something that predates even him, writing only a few decades after Jesus. Right from the very beginning, the church has always worshiped Jesus as God.

And so this morning, I want us to look at this hymn. We as a church have already been looking at this hymn a couple times, and so we're gonna look at the last couple of verses today, but I'm gonna start right from the beginning so we see the whole picture, alright? It's our tradition as a church that we stand, as we read, if you're able to, would you stand with me? All right. Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 5.

Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, 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 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.

You may be seated. Amen. Well, as I said, we're gonna mostly focus on those last couple of verses here this morning, and it is a very exalted picture of Jesus, right? This is, this is the worship of Jesus. He is given the name above all names. He er to him every knee will bow. It is a hymn of praise. And so this morning as we walk through it, I want us to ask a few questions, but the most important simply being, why? Why should we worship Jesus? Why did the early church, why were they? Why should we? Right? It's not enough to simply say you should, but we need to have a good reason.

And so we're gonna ask that question, why is Jesus exalted, and then ask, well, how? Right? What exactly happened? How is Jesus exalted, and then finally, how do we respond? Right, this is a message that requires, that invites a response to it. And so, whether you've been in church your whole life or this is the very first time ever walking in the door, everyone is invited to respond to this good news, to respond in faith and worship Jesus because of his death and resurrection. But let's just start off with that first question.

Why is Jesus exalted? Alright, and if we're gonna answer that question, we really have to understand who Jesus is. See, I don't know about you, but I've heard so many different versions of Jesus over the years. If you do a Google search, which I almost don't even encourage you to do, but if you do one on Jesus, you're gonna get 1000 different ideas. About what Jesus was like, right? You'll get the good teacher Jesus, you'll get the social activist Jesus, you'll get the political Jesus, right? Everything from the communist Jesus to the republican Jesus, you get it all, right? Jesus gets used for a whole lot of different things that usually reflects whoever is speaking more than anything else.

I know here's the thing, you don't need to hear what I think Jesus is like. The better question is what was he actually like? What does the Bible actually say about Jesus? That's a far better question. And actually, as we open to our passage here, we start off this hymn begins by telling us that Jesus is God. Back in verse 6, says Jesus is in the form of God. We looked at this last Sunday. And I know that kind of sounds like we're saying Jesus is kind of like God. Ironically, it's actually the opposite. It's saying that Jesus is really God, truly God Himself, right?

The language for this comes all the way back from, from Plato, alright, which to be fair, when this was written, wasn't as long ago, all right? And they're using his language of what's called forms and shadows, if any of you are familiar with the cave analogy. Essentially, there's a difference between the real thing and the shadow on the wall, right? Jesus is the real thing, the real image of God, right? A more modern parallel would be the difference between a picture and a real person, right? We understand there's a difference between just a picture, a still image, and the real person, right? This text is saying Jesus is really God, really and truly God, who really and truly became a man, took on humanity, God humbled himself to actually live as a man.

And now, hear me, if that's making your head scratch a little bit, how someone can be both fully God and fully man, welcome to the club. We have always been scratching our heads, and certainly there's far more to say on that topic, but it's not really the point here. The point of this hymn is actually to show us the humility of Jesus, right? That actually he would step down out of heaven and enter into our world, and he didn't even come to be a king or a tyrant or a ruler. Jesus came in order to be a servant. He came to lower himself even below what we think we are deserved.

Right, and this is why, this is the first reason why Jesus is so exalted in this passage, because he humbled himself. Right, it's a very different view of what is worthy of praise than often we are used to, isn't it? Right, so often we praise, we pay attention to the person who speaks loudest, calls the most attention to themselves. I mean there are whole marketing firms that can, you know, you can spend thousands of dollars on to make yourself seem like a big deal. Jesus came to be a servant. His exaltation comes not because he made much of himself, but because he came to serve. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew's Gospel.

Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Jesus comes gentle, lowly, humbling himself and ready to serve on our behalf. This is who Jesus is in the Bible. This is why he is exalted in this hymn, because Jesus was willing to humble himself. And actually as we continue on, we realize that humility was not simply to come as a servant, but actually to humble himself, to be obedient to God the Father, all the way unto death. Right, this is what we talked about on Friday, right? Good Friday, this reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus, where truly the only good thing that happened was Jesus himself. Everything else was horrific.

Jesus is betrayed by one of his closest disciples. He's led into this kangaroo court mockery of a trial in the middle of the night. He is beaten, whipped, mocked and then crucified. Though he had done nothing wrong, Jesus went to the cross. And here's where, if we understand that Jesus is truly God, we have to ask the question, could he have stopped it? The answer is yeah. At any moment, Jesus was able to stop everything that was happening from happening, so if it continued, it was because Jesus allowed that to continue. In fact, what we find is it was the very reason he came.

See, God did not simply enter into humanity because he wanted to hang out, because he was lonely. Actually, no, that's not it at all. God was not lonely, he was not bored. He came because we actually have a problem. Right, we actually have a problem with God that needed to get solved, and one in which we couldn't do anything about. Came to deal with the problem of our sin. And you might just say to me, look, I don't have a problem with God, right? I don't, I don't have a problem with God. I don't really believe he exists, so how could I have a problem with him? If he has a problem with me, well, that's his problem, right?

But let me help kind of reframe that just a little bit. Right, every week I take my kids to swimming lessons, right? The very first time I took them to their swimming lessons, I was really focused on what they all needed, right, getting them changed, get the towels, get all this sort of stuff, and I wasn't gonna be swimming. So I just kind of walked through the change rooms with them, found their instructor, got them all settled, great, and I just kind of sat back and I was gonna watch. Well, one of the lifeguards came up to me and said, er, I'm so sorry sir, but you're gonna have to take off your shoes. I said, what? He said, you're not allowed to wear outside shoes in the pool area. I said, oh, OK. Took off my shoes.

Now in one sense, I didn't have a problem with them. I was sitting there happily. I had no problem with what was going on, no, they had a problem with me, right? Well, what was happening is actually my actions were wrecking things. See, if everyone walks in wearing their outside shoes, you bring in a bunch of dirt, rocks, people are walking around barefoot, hurting themselves, pools getting all dirty, wrecking the floors, etc. etc. The purpose for which the pool is created is being destroyed by my actions. So I might not have had a problem with the people running the pool, but they had a problem with me. I was wrecking it for not only the intended purpose, but for others as well.

Now, I'm probably kind of overstating that example, but this is the same thing when it comes to us and God. See, God actually created this world, he created us with a purpose. He actually gave us a purpose to reflect who he is, his goodness, his beauty, his creativity, even his holiness, to love what is good in all things. God created us for that very purpose, and every time we say, yeah, but I know better. What we're doing is we're actually wrecking it, aren't we? Actually, it's creating a problem by our actions of sin. Sin says I get to know better than God. I know what would make God's work or world work better. It creates a problem between us and God, but even worse than that. It creates a problem because our sin is wrong.

See, if God is altogether good, if he is perfect in all that he does, anytime that we sin, every time we deviate from his plan, we are doing something that is wrong. And actually, there's plenty of examples we could go through. God created us to be perfectly good, to love what is right, and yet we choose to lie. Every lustful thought, every vengeful daydream, every word used to cut someone down, every abuse of others and those and those around us, echoes the fact that we've chosen something wrong, evil even.

And God being good will bring justice. He will deal with all wrongdoing, all sin, all evil, and hear me, we want that to happen. We want justice, we want things to be put right. The problem is so often we want partial justice. I want God to deal with other people. The really bad people. I want him to deal with with that stuff, leave me alone. But God is impartial. He's going to deal with all sin, all wrongdoing, all that is wrong in this world. God is going to bring to justice, and that is our great problem with God, is that everyone will stand before him and everyone has fallen short of what we are created to do. Everyone will be judged, and God has already told us the punishment of our sin is death, not just physical but spiritual, eternal death. This is a problem we can't deal with on our own.

Go through the Bible, you'll see plenty of examples of people trying to do this on their own, trying to deal with this problem and they can't. This is why Jesus came. He came to deal with the very problem that we have with God. God stepped into our world, humbled himself, became a servant, obedient all the way to death on a cross so that Jesus could pay the punishment in our place. That Jesus could actually deal with our problem with God, what our actions have destroyed, Jesus would put right for us.

John Stott, one of a British theologian, put it this way. He said

the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God. Well, the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for man.

Jesus went, took our place, went to the cross and bore the wrath of God against our sin so that anyone who places their trust in Him would be saved. This is the good news of Jesus Christ, that he would come and die in our place. This is why we praise him. This is why we exalt him over us or over everything. Jesus went to the grave so the power of sin would be broken.

Colossians 2 puts it this way, he says,

and you, who were dead in your trespasses, sin, uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

God had taken the debt of our sin and nailed it onto the cross of Jesus. The punishment we should have borne, Jesus took in our place. Why is Jesus exalted? Why is he praised? Because he has dealt with our greatest problem. Jesus has forgiven our sins.

But hear me, even that isn't the full story. Because if that's all the story, we would have ended on Good Friday and there'd be no need for Easter Sunday. But here's where we make it back all the way to our passage, verse 9. Says because of his death on the cross, therefore, God has highly exalted him. And we have to ask the question, what do you mean, how is he exalted? Right? If the story had ended on the cross in the grave, it would have read, he has exalted his memory. But that's not what it says. It says he has exalted Jesus. Now, presently, currently, Jesus is exalted, and we have to ask, hold on, it sounds like we're missing a piece of the puzzle.

We are. It's the resurrection. It's that 3 days after Jesus was placed in the grave, he rose again. He was risen not in a spiritual but a physical literal sense. That is why we celebrate Easter Sunday, because Jesus rose from the dead. He not only paid the price of our sins, but paid it all together. Jesus dealt with all of it, there was nothing left to pay for, death no longer had hold over him. Right, when you pay your full mortgage, you don't keep making payments. Jesus had paid it all, he stood up out of the grave, right? He didn't need to stay there. The resurrection is the confirmation that the check was cleared. There is nothing left for us to deal with. It's the reason we exalt Jesus, and it's what Christians have always believed, what we have praised Jesus for.

In fact, Paul writes 1 Corinthians 15, just

for I delivered to you as a first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the 3rd day in accordance with the scriptures.

Here is another part of our Bible actually didn't start with Paul. Paul says, look, I got this from others before me. This is the first and most important part of the message of Jesus. He died and he rose again, so that anyone who would trust in him would not only have their sins forgiven, but the promise of eternal life with him.

God raised Jesus not only from the dead, but raised him into heaven to sit to sit at the right hand of the Father. Ephesians one says,

according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

Jesus occupies the authority over all the earth, ruling and reigning above all other powers for all time. Jesus is highly exalted. Verse 9 says, therefore Jesus, sorry, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. He's exalted in his resurrection, exalted to the throne in heaven, and he has given the greatest name in human history.

If you remember all the way back to the book of Exodus, when God delivers the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, or God comes to Moses and Moses says, well, what is your name? He responds in Hebrew with Yahweh. It's I am. It's the name of God. In fact, the Israelite people held it so sacred, they wouldn't even say the name, lest they used it improperly. They would simply say Lord, to refer to God. It was a reminder not only of God's character, his power, his authority, but his salvation that he had worked on their behalf. This is the name that is given to Jesus, so the world might know that salvation comes through him. It's not that Jesus wasn't God until this moment, but he has given this name so that everyone would recognize Jesus is God.

Verse 10 says,

so 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.

The purpose of giving Jesus the name above every name is so that everyone in the spiritual realm, everyone on the earth, living and dead, would recognize Jesus is God. He is exalted in his resurrection, exalted in his ascension, and exalted with the name above every name so that everyone might see the work of God. He is the one who saves. And the invitation is come to him. Come to him for our forgiveness, for our salvation.

In fact, God said this 600 years before Jesus lived through the prophet Isaiah. God says,

turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God 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.

It is to Jesus, God Himself, exalted in his death and resurrection, that every knee will bow, and the invitation has come to him for our salvation.

And so the final question this morning is just how do we respond? How do we respond to this message, to what Jesus has done? And we're in many ways, we're given the answer straight from our text. Every knee should bow, every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Right? In many ways, To confess that Jesus is Lord is far more than just saying those words, right? Anyone can say the words Jesus is Lord. There's nothing special about the words itself. To confess that Jesus is Lord actually means far more than that.

Really, there's two parts to it. The first is repentance. It is repentance is the fancy word for recognizing that your sin is a problem and then turning from it. It's to say that Jesus is Lord is to agree with his assessment on our lives, that our sin is a problem, that we should no longer go into it, that we should no longer trust it. It's repentance, and then secondly, it is turning in trust, turning away from our sin and turning to trust in Jesus, His death on the cross, that is our forgiveness and the only way we can be right with God, and his resurrection from the dead, that confirms what he has done, that everyone who comes to him in faith will be saved.

In fact, Romans 10 puts it this way, he says,

because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

The good news of Jesus is open to all who would believe. Turn from your sins. The invitation is open for the forgiveness of your sins to everyone who would trust in Jesus. Would you turn in faith this Easter morning? I wanna invite you to respond. This isn't something you have to fix up your life in order to get right, but simply turn and trust in Jesus and allow him to then transform your life.

And really this is the second half of how we're called to respond. We're called to respond in confessing Jesus as Lord in faith, and then also to bow the knee. Right, to bow your knee is in many ways just a symbol of your dedication, loyalty, submission of your life to God. You can think of, you know, a knight bowing before the king, being sort of knighted, pledging his loyalty to follow this king. Well, Jesus is a king Seated on the throne of heaven, our response to him is one of dedication of our whole lives, not only of the inward part of our hearts, but the external actions of what we do, both are meant to line up.

Right, you can imagine, imagine you're on a hike, right, you're hiking Mount Tom or something like that, and you come to this cliff, and you see someone, as you're walking up, you see someone just standing right on the edge of the cliff. And as you make your way up to it, you notice suddenly the rocks are starting to fall, they're coming down, you grab them, you drag them back up. And they say wow. Oh, thank you so much, you saved me. And then they walk right back over and they stand right on the edge again. What are you doing? Stop doing that, right? You're like, no, no, I really appreciate what you've done. I'm just gonna continue to stand right here again. He'd say these things aren't lining up. You, what you're saying, your words and your actions are most certainly at odds with one another.

As we come to Jesus, we are meant to put the two together. Both our heart, our trust in Him lines up with a life that follows. We're here to follow after Jesus as our king. Because our text tells us one day, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. That's not today. Not everyone does. But one day we will. Romans 14 tells us,

for we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, for it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

There is a day that we will stand before God. And the only question is whether we will bow to him as our savior or as our judge. The invitation is open here and now to come before Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, to join in the choir of those who have gone before us in the praise of Jesus, this hymn of Christ rejoicing in his salvation. May we never forget what Jesus has done, the exalted King of kings and Lord of lords.

And so this Easter, I wanna invite you into the joy of this season. Jesus has died and is risen again. It is good news for everyone who is here. Hear me, it's not an accident that you are here this morning. God's been working in your life, whether you have known it or not, whether you've been here 1000 times or never before, God wants you to hear this message of salvation in Jesus Christ. If you've never trusted in Jesus before, if you've never done that, in just a moment, I'm gonna pray. I'll invite you to pray along with me. Pray as we confess our sins before God, as we turn to Jesus for forgiveness. If you've never done that before, I wanna encourage you, come talk to me, talk to someone you know, we wanna help you take those steps of faith.

Or maybe you've trusted in Jesus, but it's been a long time since your life and your words have lined up. You've been falling away, doing your own thing. Hear the invitation to turn to Christ once again. It is not too late. You have not gone too far or out sinned the grace of God. Turn to Jesus once again. The mercy and forgiveness of Jesus is far greater than we know.

Maybe you've trusted in Jesus and you've been walking with him. Right? Your faith is anything but insincere. Let me invite you, especially this Easter, let the joy of Christ, the knowledge of the resurrection, and the eternal, the hope of eternal life burn brightly in you. Let it be known that as you have a hope that even death cannot defeat, that Jesus on the cross. Has dealt with your sins, that the grave is empty, let it shine out of your life, let it resound in laughter and joy as we rejoice this season, the grave is empty and it is the name of Jesus that is known. Hear me, this is our call. Let us rejoice this Easter. For he is not in the grave, he has risen. Join me as we pray.

Our heavenly Father. We are so thankful that you have sent your son Jesus. Thank you for his humility, that he would take on humanity as a servant, that he would come to this earth in perfect obedience to live the life we could not do. Father, may we imitate his example as we humble ourselves before you. Thank you for sending Jesus to the cross to pay the punishment for our sins we could not bear. Thank you for the resurrection that gives us the hope of eternal life.

Lord, we confess, we are sinful people. We've not always done what is right. We've chased our own ideas. To our own pain, to the hurt of those around us, and even the destruction of your glory. We confess we've not earned your forgiveness. We do not deserve it, and yet you so freely have offered it to us. We repent of our sin and trust in the forgiveness of Jesus. We know that everyone who trusts in you is forgiven, that we can be confident in your mercy on our lives because of the resurrection of Jesus. Thank you for your for our salvation, for it is all for your glory.

Father, give us the strength to follow Jesus as our king, to continue to turn away from our sin, to live in such a way that shows our obedience to you. Let every part of our lives show your goodness, your glory, your salvation. May we treat others with kindness and mercy as you have shown to us as we speak, Lord, give us words to share how wonderful is the name of Jesus, the name above all names. May our every part of our lives reflect you. Lord, this day we want to resound in the joy of your salvation. May this week show your goodness and may our lives demonstrate your glory. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.