The King Today and Forever
IF YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR OWN COPY OF THE SERMON NOTES, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK TO DOWNLOAD A COPY: SERMON NOTES
The Mind of Christ |
The King Today and Forever
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 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.”
– Philippians 2:9-11
Introduction
Imagine with me the Garden of Gethsemane. It’s evening and Jesus is seized by a crowd of religious leaders as part of a plot to have him killed. Peter follows the crowd all the way to the high priest’s courtyard. This is actually a risk because just moments ago, he had cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant to defend Jesus. But he stays and joins others around a charcoal fire in the courtyard. It’s here by the fire where Peter denies three times that he knew Jesus: “I don’t know him. I’m not his disciple. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” After his third denial, he and Jesus make eye contact. And that’s when Peter remembers a conversation that he had with Jesus that same night in which he predicted that Peter would deny Him three times (Luke 22:54-62).
Now fast forward to after Jesus’ crucifixion and burial. It’s morning and Peter is back to doing what he did before encountering Jesus. He’s fishing but having zero success. He also doesn’t know that Jesus has been raised to life. It’s at this hopeless moment when Jesus appears to Peter from the shore by cooking breakfast over a charcoal fire. Now imagine with me again as Peter gets to shore and the smell of charcoal fire hits his nose. I wonder if that smell brought back memories of that evening when he denied Jesus by the fire.
We see a glimpse of their encounter in John 21:17: “He (Jesus) said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
While Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus provided Peter an opportunity to declare three times his love for him. In this beautiful moment, Jesus removes Peter’s offense against him. It’s by the fire where he restores Peter.
I hope we realize that Peter’s story is true for us also. Speaking for myself, there have been more times than I could count when I’ve been like Peter. So I’m grateful that I have a Savior who invites me to confess my love for him despite the number of times I’ve turned away from him.
We are just coming out of Easter weekend where we celebrated Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Now as we finish the series on The Mind of Christ, the invitation is to get deeper in love with Jesus, our King today and forever. Today, we will get into some more profound reasons why we can confess our love for Jesus more and more.
So what do we see in our passage?
1. A Servant Exalted | “Therefore God has highly exalted him”
If you were to share with someone the secret to success, what would you say? Maybe it’s something like hard work is essential. Pursuing your ambitions and dreams is a must. Don’t let anyone stop you from your goals. Do everything you can to get to the top. Maybe you’ll even use the modern saying, “The grind doesn’t stop, so don’t listen to the haters.” The reality is that we’re all too familiar with these messages. The world ruthlessly invests in the promotion of this idea of success, sometimes, even at the cost of others.
In the Greco-Roman culture, power, position, and titles were essential. The Roman Empire was built by projecting strength and conquering weaker nations. But Jesus confronted this way of power and success. In other words, God’s kingdom doesn’t operate this way. God’s kingdom is upside down. So when people elevate themselves, God himself will bring them down. However, if people take the lowly path, they will be raised by God himself. We see this truth all across the Scriptures:
The Lord tears down the house of the proud but maintains the widow’s boundaries. (Proverbs 15:25)
For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar. (Psalm 138:16)
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)
In many narratives of the Bible, we see a God destroying the works of the proud and bringing blessings to the humble. Even in today’s key passage, we see God blessing the humble as the Father exalts His Son. Jesus was the one who humbly obeyed the Father. He took on the form of humanity, as a servant, He obeyed even to the point of death. There is no better example of humility other than what Jesus did. And so, the Father “highly exalted him.”
We can’t see it in English, but in the Greek language, the sense here is that Jesus was “exalted with all exaltation.” So we can say Jesus was super exalted. Jesus’ perfect humility and lowliness on the cross is why the Father gave him this honor. Jesus gave himself up entirely to the Father’s will, and it was the Father who took care of Jesus and lifted him above all in the end.
I hope you’re getting a glimpse of this upside-down heavenly kingdom. In this kingdom, the way to greatness is by descending. There is no stepping on others to get to the top. Instead, we serve and treat others better than ourselves. This doesn’t mean you demean yourself. Rather, it is honoring others because they are made in God’s image and therefore valued by God.
So how does this impact our lives? If we ever think that humbling ourselves is not worth it, God wants us to think differently. If we follow a humble Savior, what excuse do we have for standing on our ego? Proverbs says that our pride will only lead us to destruction and a fall (Prov. 16:18). If we follow Christ's example, the Father himself will be the one to elevate us. This is what Jesus tells his followers in Matthew 23:11-12: “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
By now, it’s tempting to think, “Oh yeah, I know exactly who needs to hear this message.” If that’s what you’re stuck on—that this message is for so and so—then you’re missing the point. The call to humility is for anyone who has decided to be a disciple of Jesus. But it’s also for the church body. Imagine the kind of ripple effects if Christlike humility was embodied by each of us and as a body of Christ. If we, altogether as a family, as a church chose this humble path. We will be a powerful force for God’s Kingdom when we become the people God meant us to be.
2. A Name Entrusted | “...and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.”
In Jesus’ time, the most famous saying was, “Caesar is Lord’. All residents of the Roman Empire were required to swear this oath of allegiance. This slogan was meant to express one’s political devotion and submission to the authority and power of Caesar. Christians then entered the scene by proclaiming something different: Jesus is Lord. How could Christians declare this?
The answer is in the key passage. It is God himself that gave Jesus a name above every name. It is a name above Caesar’s or any person in a leadership position. Verses 10-11 read, “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.” Jesus’ name is the name above all names, and he is indeed Lord.
When you read the Old Testament, you’ll see that all the letters in the word “LORD” are capitalized. That’s not a mistake. The word Lord in Greek is “kurios.” It’s used for Jehovah or YHWH in the Old testament. The title Lord in our passage isn’t just meant to convey that Jesus was higher than Caesar, but also as a declaration of His divinity. The fact that Jesus has this title signifies that He is equal with God the Father.
Why did Jesus deserve this title? Simply, it’s because He humbly and perfectly obeyed the Father. He took on this responsibility when no one else could and no one else would. Without his willingness to follow the Father’s will, we wouldn’t know how magnificent and marvelous Jesus is.
In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is a character named Aragorn. While he’s a ranger or a warrior known throughout the land of men, his true identity begins as a mystery. As the trilogy moves forward, it’s discovered that he is the rightful heir to the throne of Gondor and Arnor. But he hesitates to take on the title of king. But by the end, Aragorn finally takes responsibility as king and battles against the armies of Sauron. Finally, people realize who he is and he’s honored as the rightful king of the land.
Everything about Jesus’ identity was a mystery before Jesus came to earth. This is why there are no specific mentions in the Old Testament about worshiping Jesus. It’s only until his crucifixion and resurrection that we recognize that he deserves all the honor and praise. And now, even His name has power. In His name, our prayers are heard. In His name, demons flee. In His name, we have victory over sin and death. This is why Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
We praise, worship, and lift the name of Jesus because He took on a burden that no one possibly could. He was the only one who could bring redemption and display God’s immense love for humanity. We now join all of creation, even the angels, to proclaim the name of Jesus.
Revelation 5:11-12 says, “Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,“ Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
How does this apply to us today? Let’s follow Jesus’ example. The man we call Lord served and sacrificed to bring us to the Father. If he is our Lord, we must have the same mindset. What would it look like if every aspect of our lives, we display this humble obedience that our Lord Jesus exemplified? The point is when we can call Jesus our Lord, we display it through our simple obedience even in the little things.
We need to understand the power of His name in our lives. There is nothing impossible in Jesus’ name. Because we serve an exalted Lord and Savior, there is nothing He cannot do for us. What’s amazing is, He wants to work ithrough us as we carry His name even to the ends of the earth.
3. A Father Glorified | “...to the glory of God the Father.”
Now after everything that has been covered, you might come to the conclusion that Jesus did everything for ulterior reasons, such as he was only thinking about himself and knew that he’d be exalted anyway. But here is where Christ’s humility is beautifully and perfectly expressed. In the last phrase of this passage, we see that the glory still pointed to the Father.
Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he said that everything he did was to glorify the Father. Jesus didn’t do these things to lift himself because he knew that it’s the Father who glorifies the Son. We get a glimpse of their bond when Jesus prays to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane before his arrest in John 17:1: “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”
Do you see the gravity of this Father-Son relationship? Even in the relationship among the three persons of the Trinity, each one is glorying the others. The Spirit glorifies the Son, the Son glorifies the Father, and the Father glorifies his Son. It has never been about who is better or the best. It has always been about lifting and glorifying one another. Isn’t this a great example for us? What if we lived out this mutual lifting of one another? What if we lived out Paul's instructions to “count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil 2:3)?
Now let’s go back to Jesus, and all he did. I know we have worship songs where the message is basically, “Jesus came to save me. He died for me. He rose again for me.” While there is truth to these words, they don’t paint a full picture of what Jesus did. These words are actually very “me-centered”. If these words were the full truth, then we become the only point of Jesus’ sacrifice. Our faith and everything we do becomes about serving ourselves.
But you see, you and I are not the whole point. We are not the ultimate reason why Jesus came. Even in saving us, his greatest motivation was to glorify the Father. Doesn’t this offer a different perspective on our faith? If Jesus’ whole motivation was to glorify God, then shouldn’t all of our lives be pointing to God’s glory too?
It takes hours of prayer, research, and organization before I finally get up here to preach. Then at the end of the message, you guys clap and applaud. I even receive affirmations that I did a good job. But to be honest, there’s the temptation to believe that I deserve this praise and the admiration. I’m aware of this temptation and when I catch myself in this mindset, I remember what a pastor once shared with me: “Be careful of the applause you get here on earth because you might have already received your reward.”
We always have to check our hearts. Are we doing the things we do so that we would be glorified? Are we missing the point that we’re only vessels of God’s love and truth and that He alone deserves to be glorified? When we confess that we’ve been making it about ourselves, the posture of our hearts changes—we become grateful for receiving the grace of God even when we didn’t deserve it.
So how is Jesus inviting you to glorify God? I want to challenge you to reflect beyond your time in the church building. How is God glorified in the way we love our families? In the way we work, whether in-person or remotely? In the way we carry ourselves in the midst of conflict? When we have a Christlike humility it changes our hearts, it changes us from the inside out. Everything in us points to the glory of the Father. When blessings come, we can thank Him and bring glory to Him. When trials come our way, we can lift our heads and still depend on Him knowing the end result will still be for His glory. Let our posture in glorifying the Father look like Jesus, in everything you are and in everything you do. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
I believe this is the key to our humble obedience in our journey to become more like Christ. I pray that as a church, we can continue to have the mind of Christ. Let’s continue to humbly walk before Him as we proclaim the name of Jesus to the world, and glorify our Father in Heaven.
-Rev. Jerusalem Ona