Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Many would look to the story of Christ in history and consider it a tragedy, but God discloses a different outcome to us. Because of Christ's humility, followed by His resurrection, Scripture foretells the submission of all creation to the Son of God. All things will be made new.
We'll experience the height of our humanity. Let's listen to the sermon titled The Exaltation of Christ. Scripture, it's a letter by Paul and Timothy, written to the Philippians.
We're going to begin with chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. If, and for the sake of argument we'll assume this is true, which is what this word if means, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion that make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Don't do anything out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had, who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him a name that is above all names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Father, as we join together today in this much anticipated time of worship, remembrance, it is with great joy that we gather as Your people. Father, You made us a little lower than the angels, but before we came to know You, we were wretched and sinful, not deserving of anything from You. And yet, You bestowed on us Your grace by giving to us the offer of salvation in Christ Jesus.
And in doing that, You have made us children, Your children, no longer defined as strangers, but defined as part of Your family, those You love. Father, we come together here to worship You as Your family, as Your children gathered in this place to make much of You, to remember what You did on Calvary for us. Father, we pray for those who are sick among us. There are many today who are struggling. I pray a great sense of mercy for them, that You would give them strength and raise them up, Father.
There are many that are traveling from among us. I do pray that You would be merciful and protect them as they travel. As they gather with family and friends, may they carry this message of hope in Christ to those they gather with. Lord, I ask You for the churches in our community that are gathered together today to do the same thing to worship You, to make much of You, to make us realize that we are but part of what You are doing in our community, our nation, and around the world.
With one voice, we lift Your name, the name that is above all names, praise You and worship You. Father, for this time now as we gather, pray that You would quiet our hearts, bring us our thoughts into line with Your thoughts as we focus on Your word. Pray for all that continues after this, Father, that it would warm our hearts, would point us towards You, and that Your Holy Spirit would be moving among us. Think especially for those that may be here today that do not know You as their Lord and Savior. May the word that is preached, the communion that's taken encourage them. As the kindling is piled up around them, we pray that Your Spirit would light that fire. Pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen. In the text of Philippians 2, we've studied verses 1 to 11, and our theme has been a call to follow Christ. And it continues today, we will look at the exaltation of Christ. Because the Lord has promised us that if we follow Christ, we will also be exalted, so we will follow Him in exaltation. But He is God. We cannot become God, but we can become like Him. And that's the whole point of this story of redemption. That's what we were singing about this morning. So as we look, as we focus on the work of Jesus Christ, who is the second person of the Trinity, eternally pre-existent, infinite, sovereign God, who created all that is by the word of His power.
Think about that for a moment. That One came to us, became like us, and laid down His life for us in that humility. That's significant.
What does that mean for me today, in the day to day? As we look at His example, as we have studied that, and then we get to verse 9 in our text. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name. Honor. It begins with honor. Christ will be honored.
He is honored. We have value judgments that we place on things, and sometimes even people, don't we? And we use words like up or down. And if a value judgment is increased, we use the word up, the direction up, or if it decreases, goes down. Like for example, not long ago somebody gave a living picture, and afterwards I went up to them, and I said, my respect for you has skyrocketed as a result of what you said. See, if you want my respect, just give a living picture.
It's that easy. No, but based on what this individual said, I was so impressed, because their work was a mission field, and they saw it that way. Value judgments are also, you know, if we're talking about somebody's condition, you could say, you know, the bottom fell out from underneath them, and you know, they're falling down. Jesus humbled himself. That word humbled just simply means to be made low. He made himself low. That's what this text tells us.
Here's the unfortunate part. Too many tend to keep him low by relegating him to the level of a rabbit's foot. I'll just keep him in my pocket, and I'll take Jesus with me. As long as I have Jesus, things will be okay.
Is that how you view this one who laid down his life for you? I mean, think about it. For about five dollars, you can buy a four-inch plastic bobblehead Jesus that bounces on the dashboard of your car. People have sung about it. Billy Idol, if you know Billy Idol, you're aging yourself, but some of you know who this is, right? You know, words to his song, with my plastic Jesus, goodbye, and I'll go far with my plastic Jesus sitting on the dashboard of my car.
Paul Newman also sang it in the movie Cool Hand Luke. Again, if you know that, you're dating yourself, but well, I don't care if it rains or freezes as long as I have my plastic Jesus sitting on the dashboard of my car. Is that what he is to us? God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name. God has declared a value judgment about his son. He has given him exceptional honor. He has raised him up to the highest place, and what is that? That is the throne of God.
He's seated next to the majesty on high. So he's raised him up to the highest place, but it has followed his humility and his death, which resulted in his resurrection and his ascension and now his glorification, so that he has a name above every name. And when it says the name above every name, it's not talking necessarily about a particular title. It's referring to his reputation.
It's referring to, listen to this, a category. He is an unrivaled category. This Jesus, the one who died for you and me.
So he is in a place of honor. And this text also speaks of triumph. What is the triumph? It is the triumph over sin, over sin and death, the power that would separate us from God.
Think about it this way. Jesus has triumphed over what it is that separates you from God, so you can be reconciled. And he's also triumphed over the consequence of it, which is death, and ultimately death is separation from God.
But the fact that he has triumphed over it just simply says, well, what about all those people who never know God, who do not ever surrender themselves in faith to Jesus Christ? There's a place for them. You know what it is? It's eternal quarantine.
I'm just wondering if there might be the label COVID on it. Never mind. But it will be put in its place forever, forever confined away from us. Jesus has triumphed over that. So what the text is telling us here, verse 10, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus is universally acknowledged as Lord universally. You've been listening to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Visit our church website to see upcoming events or to listen to more messages at www.gbcwinston.com. To discover how to live by grace, tune in on weekdays at 10 a.m.
Whisper: medium.en / 2022-12-23 14:21:58 / 2022-12-23 14:26:13 / 4