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.

You know, it seems almost unbelievable hearing everything that happened on this day that we call today Good Friday. What about today is good? Jesus is betrayed, arrested in the middle of the night and dragged into a court that had absolutely no concern for justice. He was whipped, beaten, mocked. Then called to drag his own cross to be crucified, where they hung him until he died. What about today was good?

In fact this day has a lot that would not be considered good, and yet it actually contains far more evil than all of human history. This was the worst day the world had ever known, the only innocent man who had ever lived was put to death. But even more than that. Jesus was not simply a good man, but this was God Himself. The one who created all things put to death by his creation, that hands that hold the world, the oceans in the palm of his hand now filled with blood. The breath that gave us life taken away. What about today was good?

Last Sunday we began to look at a passage that's called the Christ hymn. It's in Philippians 2. If you have a Bible, let me invite you to find your way there. And as we looked at this hymn, we saw Jesus is not simply a good man, but in fact is God Himself stepping into humanity. To come as a servant. But as we continue this hymn, we find that that was not simply an act he did. To show us what he was like, but also because he had a purpose for his life and his death.

This is written really in many ways as a hymn, whether Paul himself wrote it or if he's quoting a hymn in the church, we're not sure. But we see how poetic Paul's language is and in fact it's going to end in a glorious triumph. But for today, we're just going to look at one verse. We're just gonna look at one verse here, but let me begin all the way back in verse 5. If you're able, would you stand with me as we read God's word?

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who? Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

You may be seated.

You may remember last Sunday, the reason Paul is writing them this hymn. He is encouraging the Philippians to actually humble themselves, to look for one another, look out for one another, consider others more important than themselves, and to do so we look to the example of Jesus. Jesus, who is God eternal, who stood before all time, humbled himself in order to enter into humanity. He was born as a human being to live as a man. That already is a greater step down to humility than anyone else on earth has ever done, and yet we find there is still more because Jesus didn't come as a king, he came as a servant. He came to serve.

And actually as we continue our passage here this morning, we find Jesus is yet going to condescend even further, not simply to be a servant, but he would become obedient to the point of death. And it is that obedience I want us to focus in for a little bit this morning.

When we think about Jesus, we think about a lot of different things. We think about his love, we think about his mercy, his kindness, grace to those around him. We might think of his power, his strength, his miracles that he performs, the fact that he is both fully God and fully man. But rarely do we consider his obedience. I mean, if Jesus is God, why is he obedient? Certainly we are the ones who are to be obedient to him. And yet throughout his ministry, Jesus reminds his disciples over and over again that he has come to be obedient to the will of the Father.

He reminds them for a very good reason. If it were not for the obedience of Jesus, we would not be saved. This Friday would not be good. For the sacrifice of Jesus to mean anything for us, it required the perfect obedience of Jesus in our place. And so this morning I want us to simply see two things as we reflect upon the cross. First is the obedience that is required and the obedience that has been perfected for us.

And so the question that everyone is called to ask is, well, what does God require of me? What does God want from me? And if you've grown up in church, you might have some answers already in your back pocket, right? God wants faith, love. He wants us to trust him, maybe worship him, fear him, right? This is what God wants from us and certainly all of those things are true. But so often do we neglect the fact that God actually requires obedience, our perfect obedience.

In fact, this is what he created humanity to experience when Adam and Eve are created in the Garden of Eden. They are perfectly obedient to God, made in his image and able to reflect him without error. It's what Adam and Eve did and enjoyed until the fall. What broke that? It was disobedience. The problem of sin is a problem of disobedience to God, and from that flows every other problem that we see in our world spiraling out in 1000 different ways. What does God require? Obedience.

In Deuteronomy, God says:

You shall be careful, therefore, to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

Do not deviate from God's law, not even a little bit, but you are to follow every single one of God's laws perfectly. In fact, that's what the people of Israel were supposed to be doing. But lest we think all God cares about is our outward actions, rather God says it's not just about what you do, but rather who we are inside as well. We are to be morally perfect, Leviticus tells us:

For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

We're to be holy in our character, morally perfect is what God requires of us. And the people of Israel, they tried over and over again to do this, and yet over and over again they failed. Without exception, they failed every single time.

And so Jesus comes onto the scene and sometimes we imagine in our minds, well, Jesus lowers the bar, he's going to get rid of such a ridiculous requirement and yet he doesn't. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount tells his disciples:

You therefore must be perfect. As our Heavenly Father is perfect.

Actually, perfection was the requirement, perfection of our actions, perfection of our hearts, perfection of our moral and spiritual character in every aspect. We are to be perfect as God Himself is perfect. And not only are we to do that once, but actually for all time. Imagine trying to take a test where you needed to get 100% in order to actually pass the test. How nervous would you be trying to write that exam, trying to make no mistakes all the way through, only to find out that the test doesn't actually end, it keeps going for your whole life. Nobody is passing that test.

We know we're not perfect. We mess up all the times. I mean, it's almost a slogan to say, don't worry, no one's perfect. We recognize that we mess up all the time, we forget what the right thing is to do, or we simply forget to even do it. And sometimes we do the wrong thing simply because we didn't want to do the right thing.

If no one is perfect, how could that be what God is requiring of us? How could that be what God wants for us? Isn't that unfair, we say. We respond and say, God, I can't do that. I can't do that for my whole life. How can this be what you want from me?

But let's make sure we understand the problem. Because God did not come to us and say, what I need you to do is flap your arms and fly. That would be impossible for us to do. He didn't come and say, I need you to stick your head underwater and breathe. We can't do that, we are not capable. What God says is, I want you to tell the truth at all times. Are we incapable of telling the truth? Actually, no, we're very capable of doing that. The problem is we don't always want to.

The same thing when it comes to stealing our anger, hatred against others. It's not a problem of our ability to not steal from others, it's a problem of our heart. We don't always want to. In fact, the weight of sin's temptation on our hearts is so strong we cannot bear it at all times. We're not strong enough to continue resisting, we get tired and we give in, and sin whispers into our hearts, are you sure you could go for the rest of your life without ever indulging just one more time? And the moment we give in, sin turns around and condemns us. How dare you, awful person. No one would ever love you, you cannot come back to God.

Over and over again we fall into this trap, fail to live up to the perfection that God has created us for, that God has called us to do. We cannot stand up to what God has called us. We've broken his law. And what we are left with is nothing then but the judgment of our sin, the consequence of our disobedience, of the wrath of God against all injustice. What hope do we have when the obedience that is required has been broken?

But it's into this mess. It's into this mess that God steps into humanity. Verse 8 in our passage says he was found in human form, meaning in the pages of history, we come across Jesus Christ, who stepped into humanity, lived as a human being. Humbling himself in order to fulfill the very obedience God has required of us, not simply for a short little moment, but rather for his entire life. Jesus never sinned.

Hebrews tells us:

For we do not have a high priest, Jesus, who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are. Yet without sin.

Hear me, Jesus was tempted. Over and over again, Jesus was tempted with sin just the same we are, but unlike us, Jesus actually was tempted more. Because where we give in, Jesus has not. Where we say it's too much and fall down, Jesus continued to endure. It's not that Jesus didn't sin because he experienced less temptation, actually he experienced far more temptation.

You can imagine two runners getting ready to run a race. They're gonna run a 100 kilometer race, and the first runner has not prepared at all. Has done no training, just figures I'll get out there and wing it. And so he begins to run, and 5 minutes in, I mean, his lungs are burning, throat feels like it's bleeding, his legs are starting to wobble and his feet already are hurting. 5 kilometers in, he's on the side of the road, collapsed, dry, heaving into the ditch. Eventually the medic team has to come, take him away and bring him to the finish line. There he meets the 2nd runner. The one who actually ran the whole race. Both men are breathing heavy in pain. Both have experienced the race, but only one could say they actually endured fully. Only one understood the fullness of what it would require to go the entire distance.

Jesus is the only one who was obedient all the way to the very end. Jesus is the only one who has actually finished the race, the only one who understood how much strength would be required. See, we give in to our sin and we never know the full extent. Jesus did not suffer less temptation, rather more. And this is what makes the perfect obedience of Jesus all the more amazing and all the more important for us, because it was the obedience of Jesus that led him to the cross.

See, Jesus did not simply come to this earth in order to live a good life and show us it could be done, but to actually do it in our place. Jesus says in John's Gospel:

For this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father.

Jesus was obedient to what God the Father had called him to do, and God the Father had called him to go to the cross. And it's at the cross that we see this obedience perfected. Verse 8 in our passage says being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. The greatest test of anyone's convictions is the question, would you actually die for it? Whether or not you would give your life to hold to your convictions, Jesus answered that question, would he be obedient all the way until death? The answer is yes, but it wasn't merely that he died. But that he went to the cross. The hymn adds, even death on a cross.

What Jesus experienced was more than simply the death that you or I or any of us go through. Rather, he would take on the fullness of the wrath of God in our place. Our problem with God is not simply that we have failed to keep his standard, but that we actually stand justly under God's wrath against our sin. Our greatest problem is the judgment of God against our sin, and the cross is the answer to that problem.

Paul writes in Galatians:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.

It's not simply that Jesus died on this day. It was that he was hung on a tree, he bore the curse on himself. Not because he had done anything wrong. But we had. In fact, Peter writes:

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

See, the death of Jesus was far more than just a demonstration of obedience. But it was his work on the cross that actually deals with our punishment before God. And you have to understand the incredible anguish and pain that was going on as Jesus went to that cross. The weight of Jesus or the weight upon Jesus was not simply that he was facing temptation beyond anything that any of us have ever felt, bearing the full weight of all of sin's temptation, but then he would also carry the full weight of God's wrath against our sin.

This is why as Jesus sits in the garden of Gethsemane, crying out to God, asking God, if there is any other way, let it happen. Jesus is in anguish at that moment, sweating blood out of his face because in that moment, Jesus felt more temptation to run from God's will than any of us have ever felt in our lives. We would have left long ago like Jonah trying to run from God's presence, but Jesus stayed faithful and prayed:

Not my will, but yours be done.

Jesus carried the weight of perfect obedience all the way to death, never giving in even for a second. Never allowing even a single thought to cross his mind in order to selfishly lash out. No foul word escaped his lips as they scourged him. No curse was called down upon them as he hung on the cross. No every word that came from the lips of Jesus was mercy and grace for those who did not know what was happening. Every answer to the false accusations was met with truth and justice. The obedience of Christ continued all the way until onto the cross.

And then added to it was the weight of our disobedience laid on him. Crushing him on that cross. Carrying the weight of perfect obedience, Jesus also carried the weight of our disobedience. It's as if the only runner to actually finish this race also carried the weight of everyone who had fallen down already. What Jesus was going through was more than just dying, it was God's wrath against our sin. And even as the punishment for a sin crushed his body, he still did not sin. Even to the moment he cried:

It is finished

and gave up his spirit, the perfection of Jesus did not stop.

Because if he had. If he had for even just a moment slipped, if sin had entered his mind, his heart at any moment during this process. We would be forever lost. In fact, the chasm of the distance between the infinitely holy God and our sinful hearts would be forever torn apart. Because on the cross, a grand exchange was taking place. Our sinful record was placed upon Christ, and in exchange we can receive the perfect record of his righteousness, his perfection of life, his perfect obedience is placed on us.

And so if Jesus had sinned, even for just a moment, one slip, it would be simply another record that fell short. It would be no use to us because Jesus would have to pay for his own sin and could not pay for ours. His record would be of no advantage to us, and so Jesus, hanging on the cross, suffering the weight of the wrath of God, upholding his perfect standard, did so for us, and you can imagine the tension that he would have felt every moment to fight against that sin. Being crushed under the weight and so that we might be forgiven.

Our salvation was depending on the obedience of Jesus on that cross. If the crowds had known. Would they have stopped their mocking? If we know. Would we cease from our sin? Jesus was obedient until his final breath for our sake. He bore it all. The requirement that God demands would be fulfilled in Jesus.

No one is perfect. But Jesus is. Our great hope is found not in the fact that we are perfect people, but that Jesus has been perfect in our place, that the very thing that God requires of us, he supplies to us in Jesus. Jesus Christ at the cross, we see God's perfection, love, and mercy come together as Jesus steps in our place, perfect obedience then given to our account.

The cross is where the forgiveness of our sins and the record of our obedience is perfected, not because of what we have done, but because of what Jesus has done. What was good on this day? Jesus Jesus was altogether good. What God demands. God has provided for us in Jesus. The perfect obedience that God has created us to live in is supplied in the obedience of Christ. Our punishment for our sins meets the righteous requirement of all that God asks for us, for everyone who places their trust in Jesus, this Friday is good.

And yet this day is only good because we're not at the end. The end of the story was not the grave of Jesus, if that was the end, we would not celebrate, in fact we shouldn't, but we know Sunday is still coming. That the grave is not the end of this story, that it doesn't end in death but life. But for just a moment we wait. We sit in the silence of the tomb and the cost of our sin. We sit in anticipation of the morning yet to come. Death will not have the final word. The obedience of Christ was not finished in the grave. The father had called him to lay down his life and take it up again. Sunday is coming.

Let's pray. Our heavenly Father. Lord, we thank you so much for the obedience of Christ, that where we have failed, Jesus did not. Where our obedience falls so terribly short, Lord, that Jesus went to the cross in order that our sin might be forgiven, that his perfect obedience might be counted on our lives. Father, thank you for the salvation we find in Jesus at the cross. Lord, as we wait. Not for the grave, but for the new life, for the resurrection yet to come. Father, quiet our hearts, that we might know you, that we might see the mercy and the grace that was so lavishly, powerfully poured out on our behalf. Father, thank you for the obedience and the cross of Jesus Christ. In your name, amen.